Gems of Infinite Potential
by EmperorTippyFan
Summary: (Not my work, just for ease of access here on FF) I saw A Twelve Step Program to Omnipotence and frankly, I thought it did pretty much everything wrong with an SI story. So I decided to do it better. And yes, this is still going to be a power fantasy wank fest - it will just be one that doesn't require absurd ass pull "luck" to work out. SI/OC
1. Chapter 1

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

Premise:  
I saw A Twelve Step Program to Omnipotence and frankly I thought it did pretty much everything wrong with an SI story. So I decided to do it better. And yes, this is still going to be a power fantasy wank fest - it will just be one that doesn't require absurd ass pull "luck" to work out.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 1  
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I was born, or reborn I suppose, into a world of gods and monsters. A world where the legends of childhood comic books were real and where Apocalypse was coming within my lifetime.

My rebirth parents were upper middle class professionals, my father a computer programmer and engineer, while my mother was a corporate lawyer, and my childhood was one of driven ease. I knew what was coming the first time I heard the name Tony Stark and found out that Captain America was a real person, I was four then. It didn't matter if I wanted to take it easy, be lazy, or coast through life - I was in a world where only the exceptionally extraordinary mattered or had agency and survival (much less freedom) demanded that I become one of those legends.

So I didn't hold back. I had thirty five years of life experience that extended all the way to 2018, and I had been born in 1981. I smashed through the education system and was lauded as a genius on par with Tony Stark. It was a lie, that man made me look like a complete idiot, but it was still the perception. My parents' resources got me tutors and trainers to keep pushing my education (both intellectual and martial), and I graduated from MIT at 18. I made my first splash less than a month after graduation when I sold Stark Industries the rights to a little product that I had spent years working on: the iPod.

And now here I was at a New Years Eve party in Switzerland to ring in the new millennium. In truth, I cared nothing about the party. I was instead here to recruit.

I spent the party people watching and keeping a discreet eye on my target, Maya Hansen. And so I was there when she entered the hotel lobby on the morning of January 1, 2000, fuming at Tony Stark for fucking and running. Sales was ninety percent appearance, perception, and approach, and so I stacked the deck. The private investigators and profilers I had hired to study Miss Hansen had hopefully done their jobs well; everything from the cut and color of my suit to my diction was carefully designed to gain the lady's favor.

My bodyguard was discreet as he stayed back, close enough that Maya would realize he was there and yet far enough away that she wouldn't feel threatened.

"Miss Hansen, Octavian Raith." I extended a hand.

She cocked her head slightly as she extended her own to shake and said, "Of Raith Industries?"

I smiled. "The one and only. Care to join me for breakfast?"

"What's the occasion Mr. Raith?" she asked.

"Please, call me Octavian, Miss. Hansen. And I thought that we could start off the new millennium with a mutually beneficial business opportunity." I offered her my arm.

She looked at it for a long moment before taking it. "You may call me Maya, but what business opportunity would that be?"

I led us out the hotel lobby and into my waiting car, the two of us in the back with my driver and bodyguard in the front. Once inside, I opened a discreet box and put my cellphone inside and smiled slightly regretfully. "If you could, put your cellphone and any other electronics into the container."

Maya eventually relented. "What's all this about?"

Once the container was closed, I triggered the small scale EMP that would remain confined inside the Faraday cage that lined the passenger compartment of my car. "Security, Maya. I may be paranoid, but considering that the reason we are having this meeting is that I had Tony Stark's room bugged last night and that your conversations with him intrigued me, I think it just common sense and basic prudence to ensure that my privacy is actually protected."

"YOU SPIED ON US?" the woman shouted, outraged.

"Of course, I spend a lot of money keeping an eye on Tony Stark. He may be an alcoholic party boy who could put most frat members to shame, but he is still probably the smartest man on the planet. At least when it comes to moving from theory to practical products. His company, largely on the back of his own and his father's inventions, is the world leader in pretty much every even remotely interesting field of study. Weapons, power, material sciences, AI, computing; hell, even in the life sciences, they are on the bleeding edge.

"And it is thanks to that spying that you are sitting here in this car and being offered the resources needed to complete Extremis." I calmly explained.

"I wonder what the press, or Tony for that matter, would think about your spying," Maya countered.

"The press would stay quiet because you have no proof, and I have very good lawyers on retainer. And Tony, well, I have information that he would do almost anything for. That is all irrelevant though, Maya. See, I am betting that you will cut the 'proverbial deal with the devil' to be able to complete your work. Extremis has the potential to change the world, and I want to realize that potential."

Maya snorted slightly. "Change the world, right. Somehow I doubt that 'the devil' is interested in my work, out of the goodness of his heart."

"You would be surprised." I dismissed it with a hand. "Oh, I'm not wholly selfless or even mostly selfless, and I will use everything I can get my hands on, including Extremis, to my own benefi. But, I also care about the world and have no interest in hoarding the fruits of our labor. Think about it: perfected Extremis is effective immortality. At a minimum, it is being in the physical prime of your life until your mind breaks down in a few hundred years. On the one hand, that is a technology worth trillions on the open market, and on the other, can you imagine how the world will change if humanity as a species is made up of what are effectively immortal re-generators? Work with me and you won't have to worry about your research being suppressed or being locked away in some secret government vault by people who fear changing the world and advancing humanity."

Maya sat and stared for nearly five minutes before finally saying, "What kind of resources would I have? And what limits would you place on me?"

I shrugged. "Whatever you need, and the only limits I will place on you are those required to ensure our security. At the moment, I am wealthy but I lack the virtually limitless funds of someone like Tony Stark. I have plans to change that, but that will take a decade or so. However, given the stage your research is at and that you are years away from even contemplating human trials, that timeline shouldn't be an issue. I have a lab facility set up back in the US already, just give me a list of whatever equipment that you need, and I will see it delivered." I pause. "I _will _insist that you have twenty-four-hour security, however."

"What? You want to keep me prisoner or something?" Maya said with mild anger.

"No, I have no interest in imprisoning you. Indeed, I'm insisting on the security to keep you free and unrestricted. Have you ever heard of an organization called SHIELD?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so at least. Why?" she replied.

"SHIELD, or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division to use its full name, is an organization that was created by Howard Stark after World War II. During that war, the Nazis made use of superhumans and various bits of exotic technology, primarily under the direction of a division of the SS known as HYDRA. The Allies, of course, responded in kind, and Howard Stark was at the forefront of that fight. For the allies, the biggest, but far from only, success was the creation of Captain America, and his team managed to largely destroy Hydra.

"After the war though, a lot of HYDRA's research and resources went missing. Much of it was seized by the SSR, SHIELD's predecessor, but some ended up in hands hostile to the interests of the Allied powers. Given that fact and the more general realization that enhanced individuals with exotic technology both existed and were beyond the ability of more traditional forces to effectively counter, a secret article was added to the NATO treaty. It established a transnational black ops outfit with the primary objective of handling these extraordinary threats. While supported by the various member nations and under their nominal oversight, it was effectively beholden to none of them.

"Its founder and first director was Howard Stark. Today, Tony is only peripherally aware of the organization, but Stark Industries still provides much of its funding and allows it to use Stark Tech. Obadiah Stane handles that," I explained, sharing knowledge that had taken me years to piece together even with the advantages that my meta knowledge provided.

"Understand, Miss Hansen: if you accept my terms and work with me, then you are playing in the big leagues. SHIELD makes the CIA or NSA look like schoolyard bullies stealing your lunch money. It has aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, nuclear weapons, full access to every NATO member intelligence agency, limitless funding, access to technology that is literally out of this world in some cases, and is fully willing to engage in kidnapping and assassination to achieve its objectives. Its current director is a man named Nicholas Fury, and I will say, without exaggeration, that he is perhaps the single most dangerous human being on this planet. He is a good man and has prevented the outright extinction of human life multiple times, but he is also an utterly amoral, ruthless, bastard who will do whatever is necessary to achieve his objectives. And one of his primary objectives is to ensure that something like Extremis never sees general release, or even general knowledge.

"That all would be bad enough but when SHIELD was founded mistakes were made. Have you heard of Operation Paperclip?"

Maya seemed shocked. "Yeah, when the CIA extracted a bunch of Nazi scientists."

I gave a nod. "Well, SHIELD was carrying out its own Paperclip at the same time, except it was extracting HYDRA scientists and cutting deals. Unfortunately for SHIELD, a lot of HYDRA's members were never detected, and over time, they managed to infiltrate SHIELD and the various governments with seats on its oversight council. SHIELD has been quite thoroughly infiltrated by HYDRA, as has the US government. To the point where I know for a fact that even some sitting Senators are card-carrying members of HYDRA. Everything I said about SHIELD, HYDRA is a hundred times worse and has ruling humanity as its end goal."

Maya seemed shaken but her voice only quavered slightly as she said, "Ok. I _would_ say you are engaging in conspiracy theorist bullshit, but I will assume, for now, that you have convincing evidence of your claims. But why are you telling me all this?"

I pointed at her jacket pocket. "Because you already almost made it onto their radar. Aldrich Killian, the man who gave you his card last night? His think tank, AIM, was being funded by HYDRA. I'm not sure how much he knew about his backers, and I'm pretty sure that you personally haven't been noticed by them, but he was using HYDRA money. And that's why he drunkenly committed suicide last night when he stumbled off the roof of the hotel."

Her hand came up and covered her mouth as her eyes went wide. "You killed him!?"

"As I told you, Maya, this is the big leagues. A saying that I heard once and has stuck with me: 'when you play the game of thrones you win or you die.' Well, Miss Hansen, your research has dealt you into the game, and now it's time to play. So yes, I had Killian killed, and I have no doubt that I will have other people killed in the future. I can't afford to make mistakes, Maya. The stakes are too high, and my opponents won't hesitate to take any action," I answered. "Now for the million dollar question: are you in, or are you out?"

"Are you going to kill me to if I say no?" she snapped back.

"No. If nothing else, I think that you will continue your research regardless of the consequences, and there are only a handful of organizations in the world that would fund it. Given that I have methods of infiltrating those organizations, I would just steal your research from them in the future and use it for my own ends. On the other hand, if I kill you, then I have no guarantee that anyone else will figure out how to replicate or complete your work. Yes, telling you all of this is somewhat risky for me, but I am interested in a partner and not an employee. I have no desire to spin a complex lie to ensnare you or to gain your loyalty under false pretenses. I want your willing assistance and that means both sharing information with you and trusting you with information that could harm me."

After a long moment of staring into my eyes, she extended a hand and said, "Fine, I'm in, Octavian. Partners?"

I took her hand. "Partners."

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A/N  
Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	2. Chapter 2

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 2  
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Maya had just boarded the flight back to the US, and I was in the first class lounge waiting on my own flight when a red-headed women sat down next to me with barely a glance at my bodyguard.

"Nice work with Killian, Natasha," I said without turning to face her.

"He was an out-of-shape scientist. It's not like it was ever going to test my skills," the assassin offered. "I see that your recruitment efforts paid off."

"Yes, Maya will work out very well for us, I think. Once her Extremis is perfected, it will be more than capable of reversing that abominable procedure the Red Room forced on you." I took a sip of the scotch in my hand.

"For your sake, I hope you are correct. The money might be nice, but a potential cure is what really bought you my services."

I smiled slightly. "So mercenary, Natasha. Oh, it will take years, but you will have your cure and so very much more. Although personally, I am hopeful that friendship, mutual loyalty, and even common cause might join us in the future."

"Don't get your hopes up, Octavian. Although I suppose that miracles_ do_ happen on occasion," she said before getting down to business. "You indicated that you had my next target?"

I handed over a USB drive. "Yes, a kidnapping this time. Well, three kidnappings to be more precise: Kevin Thompson and his parents, Albert and Louise. Everything that my investigators could turn up is on the drive, but the bare bones is that Kevin's body emits a mind control virus. Anyone who is exposed to it will be under his total control until their body fights it off, which takes about twelve hours. I want him locked up in one of the isolation cells in the Wyoming facility, and his parents are about to be forcibly recruited seeing as his ability is the result of their work."

Natasha had a questioning hint lacing her words as she said, "I'm not sure I'm overjoyed with the idea of you having mind control abilities."

I waved a hand in dismissal. "That's years off. I plan on using Extremis to do the needed genetic augmentation, and that is at least a decade away from human trials. No, I'm sending you after Kevin because I want a vaccine to his ability developed post-haste, so that all of us can be safe from at least this vector of mind control. And because I want the raping piece of shit locked up, as opposed to fucking over everyone who catches his attention."

"You're the client. Timetable for this?" she replied, sounding just the tiniest bit relieved. Good acting on her part. There was no way I would pick it up if she didn't want me to.

"Considering that my flight is about to board and I have no idea how long this will take, there isn't really a timetable. Just make sure that Kevin doesn't make you his slave; that would be very bad," I said as I rose.

"And what's in Nepal?" Natasha asked, remaining in her seat.

"An old woman that I hope will teach me how to perform parlor tricks. Wish me luck." I finished my drink and headed towards the plane.

"Good luck." She floated after me.

Gaining the services of the Black Widow had been a real coup but worth all the effort and expense. With the fall of the USSR, she had gone from being an agent of the Red Room to being an agent of the KGB, but Russia's economic woes had led to her KGB handler going rogue and selling her services to the highest bidder. When she found out, she killed him and went independent, around three years ago.

Since then, she had quickly made a name for herself as perhaps the world's best contract killer and spy. Getting a meeting hadn't been easy, but I had been putting significant effort into understanding this world's darker underbelly since I became aware of what universe I was in. The right contacts had caused her to show up in my room six months back wondering why I was trying to get in touch. Information on SHIELD and HYDRA had been enough to interest her, but an offer to fix the sterility that the Red Room had inflicted upon her was what got her on retainer. Well, that and a lot of money. Between her, my security detail, the lab facilities, and my cover activities, I was bleeding money, but thankfully, I was also making it.

The first smartphone should be ready for demonstration within the next six months, but the real money was going to come from the video streaming. I was shamelessly abusing future knowledge for ideas, but I didn't really care. Besides, the world could use Netflix. The infrastructure for that should be up and running before the year was out as well, and with Natasha conducting a little industrial espionage and blackmail, it had been relatively easy to gain the digital streaming rights to a significant back-catalog of movies and TV shows.

Until that was up and running though, I was having to supplement my income with dead drug dealers. Having the Black Widow raid stash houses was massive overkill, but one did what one must.

Regardless, with the more immediately time-sensitive issues out of the way, it was time to see if I could learn magic. I might never be Sorcerer Supreme material, but even basic magical abilities would be a huge boon.

With the knowledge that Kamar-Taj was in Kathmandu, Nepal, it had only taken throwing around a relatively small amount of money with the beggars and downtrodden before one of my people had found the location that I now stood outside. It didn't look like anything special; just a little hole in the wall door, and yet, inside it housed an Infinity Stone, and the woman, who in terms of pure, raw, make the universe your bitch, power, was at the very top of Earth's heap.

I debated, again, whether this was the right choice. Unlike with Hansen, I was walking into a situation where I had literally zero control. The Ancient One was so utterly beyond me that a random ant had a better chance of killing me than I did surviving her wrath, if she wanted me dead. And yet, by the same token, trying to avoid her was utterly pointless: she was Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. I had no doubt that she had been aware of my existence, and that I would be standing here outside this door long before I was ever born in this world. She already knew how our interactions would progress. The women held dominion over the Time Stone; to think that time was not her bitch was absurd.

And so with a sigh, I squared my shoulders, turned to my two guards. "Mark, Bruce, wait here, and if I haven't come back out within the next six hours, then go back to the hotel."

Mark said, "You sure boss? What if something happens, and we aren't there to protect you?"

I gave a chuckle at that. "Mark, if the person I am about to meet wanted me dead, then the entire US military couldn't protect me. I'm going to bargain with a god, and I use that word advisedly. Don't worry, you and Bruce have done your jobs more than adequately. In the event that you don't see me again, I've set aside some money for you two. Miles has the details."

With that, I walked up the steps and was about to knock on the door when it opened before me. A woman in flowing red monk's robes silently indicated that I should follow before leading the way into a larger chamber.

Sitting at a low table was a bald woman in white robes, pouring from a tea pot into two cups. "Please, have a seat Mr. Raith. Tea?"

"I would be honored, Ancient One." I took the indicated seat. I waited in silence until she passed the cup, and after a long sip - it was very good tea - I continued. "Delicious. Although I am at something of a loss for words, how does conversation work when one of the participants has already seen every variation on the conversation and knows what will be said before it is said?"

The Ancient One smiled slightly as she drank from her own cup. "I've found that it works best to just speak, for with every word spoken, some possibilities are trimmed. In the end, there is only one outcome, and yet, what that outcome will be is only fixed after it has happened. For example, a hundred years ago the chances of you being here before me were minuscule. A handful of possibilities among countless trillions, and yet, once you drew breath, it became a near certainty that we would be having this conversation."

"An interesting explanation, and one filled with insights that I will treasure. If nothing else, it is a relief that even for one with dominion over time, the future is not fixed. Living in a world where nothing matters because it is all preordained would be pointless, so I will take joy in knowing that existence has at least some point," I said, before taking another sip of my tea. "I have come to ask that you train me in the mystic arts."

After her own sip, the woman gave a small smile and said, "Why else would you come? Before I answer though, I have two questions for you."

"Ask, and I shall answer."

"Why do you want to become a Sorcerer, Mr. Raith?"

I thought for a moment about lying or trying to spin a tale but in the end decided that honesty was the best policy. "Power. Oh, I will never be Sorcerer Supreme; Dr. Strange will replace you in that role when the time comes. And I will never make the sacrifices demanded by those entities you must bargain with to reach the highest levels of mystical power, but even the skills of a relatively modest sorcerer would serve me well in my goals. So, I come to be taught them."

The Ancient One nodded. "And why should I grant you this power, Mr. Raith?"

"Because we are entering an age of gods, and this world will need its champions. Your end is approaching, and while Dr. Strange will defeat the one who calls the Dark Dimension home, that is only one of the lesser in a litany of potential apocalypses. The Asgardians will walk the Earth openly once more, a Celestial will die, the armies of Thanos will invade, Odin will fall and Ragnarok will come. And all of this will be merely a prelude to the wrath of Thanos. He comes for the Infinity Stones, and he will use them to offer half the population of the multiverse to Death herself as a courting gift. All of this will occur within the next few decades.

"I seek power because I know what threats are coming, and I will stand against them. If I have to tear down the heavens and flay gods to protect humanity, then I will. And yet, that task takes power on a scale that all but a handful of this world's population would consider pure fiction. Humanity's other champions may hate me for what I do in the name of power, they may label me a villain, and yet, I will still do what needs to be done."

I answered honestly and fully, for here in the heart of the Sorcerer Supreme's power, with just the two of us present, I had little doubt that no one could eavesdrop.

"Conviction. Good. You will be interesting, Mr. Raith. It is a pity that I won't be around to see what you become in the fullness of time. You will have your training. Finish your tea, and I will start breaking your mind," she said with a positively evil smile.

Once I set the cup down, her hand lashed out faster than I could track and smacked into my chest. Suddenly, I was floating behind my slumped over body while feeling like I was tingling all over. The Ancient One's soul seemed to walk out of her body as she joined me on the Astral Plane. She struck me again before I could say anything, and my soul went spinning through realities.

It went on for countless eons, and yet, it was instant. What I saw defied any description I could give; the worst acid trip wouldn't even begin to compare to dimensions where words did not exist to even start describing what I saw. When it was over, and I found myself back with the Ancient One, I said, "Whoa, that was trippy as fuck. Why did you have me experience it though?"

"To use the mystical arts, you need a connection to things that can do what you want. Hand gestures and words are meaningless without the power to back them up, and humans don't naturally have any power to alter reality with nothing but their will.

"Agamotto was the first human Sorcerer, and he became one by finding the Time Stone one day. It took him back to the very instant of creation, and to the very instant of cessation. At those two points, there is only one place, one reality, and when the human soul is exposed to a reality, it absorbs the smallest fraction of that reality while creating the smallest of links to that reality. Thanks to the Time Stone, Agamotto was connected to every possible reality, and over time, he learned to harness that power to his own ends. Eventually, he even learned how to temper and direct the process so that he could expose others to those infinite realities, and since then, we have all experienced that trip," she explained. "Congratulations, Mr. Raith, you are now a Sorcerer."

"Power without the knowledge to control it is nothing but the death and destruction of all you care about. I may have the potential to be a sorcerer now, but I must dispute my possession of the title for the moment," I countered.

"As you wish. I'll have Wong show you to your quarters and provide you some introductory texts to read. Don't stay up too late reading though. Your real training starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and you won't want to be tired."

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A/N:  
As I said, this is going to be a power fantasy and I make no bones about it. Do not read if you want a _good _story, read if you want a mildly amusing time waster to veg on one day. Hope you like my explanation for where "magic" comes from. It will be expanded on some more in the future but that is the basic idea.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	3. Chapter 3

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 3  
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I tried to listen to the Ancient One, I really did, but magic was just too fucking cool, and so I found myself going through what appeared to be unarmed combat drills in the courtyard with the other initiates while having been awake for twenty or so hours.

The books had explained the fundamentals of how magic worked, and it was interesting. Power was drawn from whatever reality best served a given spell, channeled through the body, and directed by the mind. Raw power was something that everyone was equal in as a general rule. You needed to do something like cut a deal with the god of a given realm if you wanted to draw more than a bare fraction of power from it, but how much power could be thrown into a given spell relied on how much power you could channel through your body. A stronger, tougher, more durable body could handle more power, and so a Sorcerer needed to be in good shape. How that power was then expressed and directed was the realm of the mind. So a strong body and a strong mind was required if one wanted to be a strong Sorcerer.

After several hours of exercise, the Ancient One came and got me. "I told you to get some rest. Hopefully you will listen in the future."

I replied as we walked, "I'll try, but magic is simply interesting."

"Well then, let's start you off with one of the first pieces of magic that I teach. How would you like to learn to teleport?" she asked as we reached a side chamber with what appeared to be random objects strewn about.

"Teleportation seems cool, although one would suppose that teleportation would be pretty advanced," I offered as she dug out a small object that looked like two rings joined on top by a piece of metal.

"It is, and it isn't. Teleportation without a sling ring is far beyond your capabilities. With a sling ring, it is incredibly simple." She tossed me the ring as she spoke. "Put it on."

I examined the ring for a moment before sliding it on. "What is it, and how does it work?"

"Physically, it is nothing but a bit of bronze. Mystically though, it is a direct link to the Time Stone. The link doesn't provide the required power, but it does handle the vast majority of the spell direction. With the ring, you can effectively step through space."

I was stunned and said, "Wait, how does that work? I mean, wouldn't that be the power of the Space Stone?"

"You know that Time and Space are linked, right?" the Ancient One snarkily asked. "I assume that you are aware of Einstein's work."

"Sure, but I don't quite get how the Time Stone is allowing teleportation through space. And can a sling ring let you step through time?" I asked.

"As I said, go back in time far enough, and every space is in the same place. The sling ring uses the power you provide to open the most minuscule portal back to the instant of creation, and then uses the energy present then to create a much larger portal between two locations in the same time. It's effectively a wormhole. As for stepping through time, no, that is beyond the power of a sling ring. Existing outside of your time makes you a walking paradox, and only with the full power of the Time Stone can you overcome the issues inherent in being a walking paradox. You_ can_ use the ring to accelerate or decelerate time in a limited area for a small duration however, if you know what you are doing."

She held out her right hand, her own sling ring extended forward. Holding her right hand still before her, she started waving her left in a circle. In a few moments, a flaming circle appeared in the air, and on the other side of it was a snowy mountain cliff. "Since the sling rings are designed for this, all you need to do is concentrate on a detailed mental picture of your desired location and will the portal to open."

It was two weeks before I managed my first portal, and a month more before I learned that you could effectively "store" locations in a ring. If both you and that specific ring were at a location, then with a very minor exertion of power, you could effectively fix that exact location into the ring, so that you could return to that exact location without the need for a clear image of your destination.

I was a full time student of the Ancient One for nearly two years, not that I lived in Kamar-Taj the whole time. With the ring, I was never more than a step away from the place, and so I was much like a college student who lived off-campus. Could I have progressed faster if I dedicated all day, every day to learning magic? Yes. Could I dedicate that kind of time and keep my other plans on track? No.

Still, relatively little of note happened during those two years beyond relocating my research facilities to under the surface of Mars. Magic was a hell of a tool. With some high quality pictures courtesy of NASA, I became the first human, to my knowledge at least, to walk on the red planet. More magic opened up a nice, large, hole in the ground and reshaped steel into my desired structure before the surface was returned to its natural state. No one, not even the people working there, needed to know that facility's actual location.

Kilgrave's parents spent their days locked up under effective house arrest in my hidden lab, while they worked on understanding Kilgrave's mind control virus. Maya Hansen was chugging along with Extremis and making slow but steady progress. Considering that I don't think it was seeing human testing until around 2010 in canon, I had no complaints on that front. All in all, I was fairly confident in my security arrangements given that people only got to or from the facility when I chose to open a portal.

On the business front, things had been progressing nicely. With sixteen years worth of future memories to draw on for ideas and a Black Widow to create less than legal advantages, it wasn't hard to build up Raith Industries. Our current moneymaker was Netflix, but the various patents that had been the result of telling the scientists and engineers under my employ what I wanted developed also brought in a nice chunk of change. I had thought about bringing out the iPhone under my own brand, but the infrastructure costs were just too high, and so I had licensed the patents to Stark instead.

Now though, well, it was time to advance my more important plans. Natasha had finally tracked down Ulysses Klaue, and it was time to make all of that nice shiny vibranium disappear into the black hole that was Mars Base.

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A/N:  
I told you it was a power fantasy. Besides, if you have teleportation without range limits and want secure facilities then you may as well locate them on another planet. It is such a nice security boost.

There will be more time skips in the future as well, simply because Iron Man 1 isn't set until 2009. Even Matt Murdock doesn't start law school until 2003.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	4. Chapter 4

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 4  
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I was in the Kilgrave lab on Mars with Natasha and the labs two primary scientists, Albert and Louise, standing by my side. In my hand was a clear vial with a purplish-red liquid inside, while Natasha was examining a perfume bottle.

"And you are sure this works?" I asked the two of them.

"Yes, we've managed to isolate the virus that Kevin's body produces. The perfume interacts with the wearer's natural scent to produce a unique chemical tag that interacts with the virus and triggers it. One whiff of the perfume and anyone dosed with the liquid will be under the perfume wearer's complete control for twelve hours. Black Widow has worked with us to test it, and it has functioned perfectly in all human trials," Albert explained as I held the first concrete fruits of two years of labor and nearly seventy million dollars in funding. "Although I would like it noted that we have no testing data involving enhanced individuals, so we can't guarantee performance with regards to them."

"Application method?" I asked.

Louise indicated an assortment of items on the table; small pills, a liquid, what looked like gas grenades, and even some things that looked like band-aids.

I picked one up. "What are these?"

"DMSO slap patches. Put one of those band-aids on someone's skin, and the virus will be in their bloodstream within seconds and into their brain within a few minutes," she explained.

"Ah. Interesting. How long before the gas becomes inert? And can it be absorbed through the skin, or does it require inhalation?" I continued with the questions, checking to make sure that the memos I had received had been accurate.

"Ten minutes and just skin contact, but it is both colorless and odorless in the needed concentrations," she offered.

"Very nice, good work. How are we coming on the vaccine research?" I queried, thinking that it was a pity it was still incomplete, as with it, those gas grenades would be very useful.

Albert cleared his throat. "At least another ten months. This virus is like nothing I have ever seen before. It is blood-borne until it passes into the brain, where it infects those parts of the brain responsible for motor function and creates what appears to be an entirely new structure that connects virtually every part of the brain. When an order is given, the new structure seems to hijack the host's brain to interpret it and then sends the needed commands down the nervous system.

"We are looking at two potential approaches to a vaccine: one that will kill the virus in the blood and the other that will destroy it in the brain. Both look to be viable, but neither is ready for human trials yet. That the virus doesn't work on anything but humans is seriously slowing down our research."

I nodded. "Keep working on it and write a memo stating how many you think you need. The world has plenty of criminals it would be better off without. Where are we on the genetic mapping?"

"The virus is fully mapped, and we have a full DNA record for Kevin, but isolating what gene combination caused him to produce the virus is very slow-going. At least five more years, unless we make some kind of major breakthrough," Louise answered.

I thought over some of my future plans for a bit, thinking about the practicalities of speeding some of them up. "What would the time table look like if your computer processing power increased by several orders of magnitude?"

"If it increases to the point where we can efficiently model the entire gene-map and compute what the results of given changes would be on the body, then it would shave years off of that prediction. Between Dr. Hansen's team and our own people, we have a pretty good grasp on accurately modeling the macro scale effects of DNA changes. But even with the supercomputers running perfectly, it still takes days to complete the model for each gene-map. Speed up that process, and pretty much everything we are doing will have its completion dates moved forward significantly," she explained.

I took a moment to think it over and then gave a decisive nod. "Make the long-duration-tailored Kilgrave virus your top priority. I have someone in mind with exotic technology that will solve the computing problem, but there is no chance he works with us of his own volition."

"We'll need the DNA sample fairly soon, then. We can have it at the point where individual tailoring is needed in a month or so," Albert answered.

"Then we know what Natasha's next mission will be. But for now, the two of us are off to work," I said, before Natasha and I left the lab.

As we walked towards the gym, I said, "I'm thinking that you meet up with Klaue tonight, and while he is out, I open a portal into his bedroom and dose his drinks with Kilgrave. Then you bring him back, get him to have a drink, and he is under your thrall. Just have him take you to the vibranium vault and take a few pictures for me, before heading back to his room. I'll empty the vault, we drain his accounts, and then we kill him before I bring in a few thousand pounds of C4 and blow the place sky high."

"It should work, but why kill him before we blow him up?" Natasha asked.

"Because Wakanda really wants his head, and I might need a future favor from them, so kill him and preserve his head in cold storage against future need." I explained, before asking about Natasha's primary project. "How are the plans for the Black Thorn coming?"

"They're coming, but we still need the drug supply. Without a steady and secure supply, taking over the drug trade carries too much risk of exposure. I've completed preliminary selection for the kill teams, and I think we can question them under Kilgrave to weed out any spies or dishonest applicants. Distribution shouldn't be an issue once the kill teams get to work. Assuming that we have a supply, the street gangs and syndicates will buy from us because we will be the only game in town. Laundering the projected profits is going to be difficult though," she explained, discussing our plan to take over the drug trade first in the US, but eventually in most of the first world. Stopping the flow of drugs was impossible so long as the demand existed, so I would prefer to control it instead of letting everyone else get the money and influence.

I sighed slightly. "My idea for buying gold in Africa for cash and then moving the gold into Europe won't work then?"

"It will for a percentage of the take, but we are looking at tens of billions per year in hard cash, perhaps more. Short of the willing help of a national government with a major economy to launder it through, we are looking at close to a decade to build up the front companies and identities. It would be easier to use electronic transfers, but the security concerns make that nonviable."

I hummed. "Well, lets keep working on it. If our next acquisition goes well, then we should be able to divert the needed scientific knowledge to the synthetic drug production. Who knew it was so hard to produce commercial quantities of synthetic cocaine?"

We had reached the gym and headed towards the training mats for our daily session of Natasha beating the shit out of me in a spar. She asked, "Whose the target?" even as her right fist came rocketing towards my head.

I diverted it with my arm while moving to lock her leg and punch her in the stomach. "Hank Pym. He's a super genius who developed a formula for what he calls Pym Particles, and those let you reduce the distance between atoms in an object along with doing weird things to mass. In simple terms, with them you can shrink an entire office building into a carry on and stick it in the plane's overhead bin without issue. The man and his wife were heroes working with SHIELD back in the day, but she sacrificed her life to stop an ICBM headed for the US, and then he retired."

Natasha reversed the leg lock, dropped me onto the ground, and had her fist about to punch through my trachea in an instant before she said, "Seems interesting, although I'm not exactly sure of the use. I assume you have a more complete briefing package put together?"

I got back to my feet. "I'll get one completed in the next day or so. And yeah, I think his tech is going to really complement your abilities." With that, we readied ourselves to continue sparring for nearly two hours.

We ended up delaying until the next day, but as the sun set off the Venezuelan cost, Ulysses Klaue's current base of operations, Natasha was eating dinner with him on his boat. I quickly popped into his bedroom and dropped Kilgrave into all of the drinks on his private bar, before returning to Mars and waiting by the nearly microscopic portal I opened up under his bed, so that I could hear what transpired in the room.

It was almost two hours later that they entered. A few minutes of idle conversation between the Widow and her mark passed, and she said, "I've got him."

I opened a portal over the bed and pushed through a hidden camera for her to use.

A moment later, she said, "Change of plans. He has the vault wired with surveillance video that he can access from his computer here. Come look at the screen, and you can port right in."

I did just that, and after ascertaining that the vault cameras could only be viewed from this station, I opened a portal and walked through. I quickly started emptying the vault, for the four hundred and seventy nine pounds of vibranium present in it had a market price of around 2.2 billion dollars. Not that I was going to sell so much as a gram of this precious metal. In a handful of minutes, I had the vault emptied and was back in Klaue's room.

Natasha was at the computer, and so I asked, "How's it going? Vault's empty."

She was quiet for about thirty seconds. "So are his accounts, almost seven hundred million, all told."

I opened a portal to the armory on Mars. "Start moving the explosives then, while I deal with Klaue."

With that, I cast a spell to create a glowing orange blade and chopped off his head in a single swing. The blade cauterized the cut so rapidly that not even a drop of blood spilled.

As I dismissed my blade and helped Natasha with the C4, I thought back to the early days of my magic training. I had found it odd that Sorcerers fought mostly with magically created blades, as opposed to fireballs and the like, but the explanation provided made sense. When you threw a fireball, you needed to create the stable spell structure, fill it with the desired energy, and direct it to the target. At which point it would explode and release all of that energy at once. If, however, you created a whip and filled the structure with that same amount of energy, then it would easily burn through whatever it contacted while the spell structure would stay intact, and no energy would be wasted on the environment. It was simply much more energy efficient.

With the timers set for thirty seconds we returned to Mars, the news reports the next morning made mention of a massive explosion on a ship off the Venezuelan cost. It was suspected to be smuggling weapons.

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A/N:  
Yah, shiny super metal. Who wants to see the Black Widow in a Vibranium super suit equipped with Pym Particles?

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	5. Chapter 5

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 5  
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Vibranium was an _interesting_ metal, even if it made almost zero damn sense. That was my opinion, even ignoring how Wakanda basically used it as magic.

Given that I had no specialists or super scientists focused on the metal, and that it was fucking cool, I had been spending my free time in my lab studying it ever since the theft was successful. Those studies had started off fairly easy but rapidly hit a brick wall simply because trying to examine the metal with anything directly wasn't working. Even the basic microscope failed, given that the metal was absolutely black and absorbed every drop of radiation that impacted it without seemingly any issue; it simply did not reflect anything. In the end, I had to resort to developing specialized spells that would let me examine an object's molecular structure by basically cheating and reading the information direct from the universe.

While I was working on that spell, using two months of complex math and raids on the Ancient One's library, I resorted to more crude methods of discovery. Things like putting a piece of vibranium into a hydraulic press and letting it go until the press broke, or dropping a bit into an industrial kiln to try and melt it. Shaping the metal wasn't particularly hard given that it was publicly available information. You just needed to hit it with very specific levels of electricity and kinetic energy at the same time, and you could set up a resonance that caused the molecular bonds (which were more energy structures than actual matter) to temporarily shut down. The problem was that this method only worked with pure vibranium; once it was alloyed with anything else, you also needed a way to destroy the physical structure provided by the other metal, while at the same time you broke the vibrainum's bonds, or the structure would stay intact.

Performing that alloying wasn't hard: just break the vibranium down and pour it into a liquefied sample of the whatever you wanted to alloy it with. Managing an even distribution was incredibly difficult - if at all possible - but it wasn't really necessary. The most effective means I had found was to encase incredibly small nodules of vibranium around spheres of titanium or steel, and then weld the outer shells together to create the macro scale object. While almost infinitely weaker than pure vibranium, it was also much easier to work with. The outer shell would transfer energy to the vibranium core, which would absorb it in staggering amounts, but if you dumped in too much energy too fast, then you could exceed the ability to the shell material to propagate the energy into the vibranium, and the shell would break down.

All of this was interesting and would prove quite useful in the future, but I knew I was missing something big. See, the energy that vibranium absorbed didn't just go away. It was all still there, locked away inside the super metal. I learned that I could use magic to tap that energy as a power source - it wasn't even that hard. But it was also pointless, given that I already had access to more raw power than I would ever probably need. What I wanted to know was how to tap into that energy and drain it out using science, because that would be a near perfect ultimate battery.

Based on my experiments, you could detonate a nuke inside a sphere of pure vibranium, and it wouldn't even be detectable outside the sphere. So make such a sphere, detonate the nuke, and then you would have a battery with all of those megatons of raw energy locked up inside of it to be drawn out when needed. It was almost the ultimate fusion reactor, but the only problem was that I just couldn't figure out the energy extraction.

So far the only real use I had had with the super metal was to alloy it with titanium to make incredibly lightweight body armor inserts for Natasha and I. Nice enough, but not even on the radar of the powers that be.

That all really started to change when I finally had Pym's help, unwillingly willing as it may have been. Even if it was almost six months after I told Natasha to start planning the kidnapping.

The truth was that Hank Pym was a Tony Stark-level super genius with billions of dollars in resources, was running one of the worlds premier technology development firms at the time, and was a trained SHIELD operative with years of active experience. Not to mention his virtually telepathic control over bugs and his exploitation of Pym Particles; I mean, the man carried a real tank around on a key chain for emergencies, and that was only one of his contingencies.

The first plan had been to just open a portal right in front of his car as he drove home from work one day, but that was scrapped as being both too public and too likely to backfire. I wasn't going to bet against him having that car tricked out with an entire arsenal that could wreck unholy havoc on whatever facility I dropped him off in. Not to mention that I wouldn't be surprised if he committed suicide before allowing himself to be captured, and that was just not a risk I found acceptable.

The next plan was getting a DNA sample from him to customize Kilgrave for only him, so that he could be enthralled in public without anyone else being the wiser. But that also had to be scrapped, simply because chances of detection were too high.

The plan that we actually went with had Natasha infiltrating Stanford, where Hope van Dyne was attending college. The master spy had Hope convinced she was her best friend in a matter of weeks, and setting up a blood donation drive that Hope donated to was completed within another month. From there, Natasha continued to play her role while the Kilgrave team worked to customize the virus so that it would only effect Hope or her father. All told, it was March of 2003 before everything was ready.

A little subtle encouragement and manipulation by Natasha had Hank Pym, his daughter Hope, her boyfriend - and Hank Pym's protégé - Darren Cross, and Natasha all on a flight in Hank's private jet to Hawaii for a little vacation. No one needed to know that when Natasha had spent the previous night at the Pym house, she had worn her Kilgrave perfume and enthralled both Pyms before getting Cross with a Kilgrave band-aid. Or that she carried an enchanted necklace that would allow me to open a portal anchored in relation to it, as opposed to the planet. And so it was that all of Hank Pym's Pym Particle data and paraphernalia went on a one-way trip to Mars the day before the family jet was tragically lost, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, for reasons that would never be suitably explained. The three of them and Natasha had gotten onto the plane, only to leave it courtesy of my portal over the Pacific Ocean, right before the enthralled pilots had crashed it straight into the ocean at full speed.

I had thought about shorting Pym Tech in a big way before the crash but decided it was too risky. SHIELD would look into this accident, and I didn't want any trails pointing to me. Instead, the second cousin who inherited all of his assets sold the company to me after a suitable period of time had passed for a low, if fair, price. Video of him with an underage girl might have been involved, but no one needed to know about that engineered blackmail. So long as he stayed nicely retired, living off his fortune in the Bahamas, no one ever would.

The first thing I did after getting Pym to Mars was get the full formula and details for Pym Particles out of him. I was temped to rename them to Bullshit Quantum Magic Fuckery Particles, but that was just too long for easy use. Combining his knowledge with my knowledge of magic, and what I could get from several visits to the library at Kamar-Taj, it seemed that Pym Particles were engaging in serious dimensional/reality fuckery. The heart of the Pym Particle was some exotic matter/energy thing that basically acted like a portal into a reality where distance and mass was entirely mutable.

Frankly, Pym had invented almost an entirely new language to conceptualize the mechanics of the whole process, and even with his active assistance, it was still more months before I could really understand his explanations. Translating them into English was simply beyond me. Regardless, the two Pym's and Cross were kept doped up with Kilgrave injections and hemmed in with orders that kept them compliant. The three of them, along with several much more normally loyal scientists in my employ, had the Quantum Lab chugging along at full speed.

That drastically sped up all of my work simply because of what the Pym Particles made possible. Take a microscopic object and with Pym Particles, you could make it the size of a house, manipulate it on the macroscopic scale, and then return it to its natural size. The bullshit particles could allow you to perform molecular engineering literally by hand, or more importantly by robot assembly line. When you can make molecularly accurate computer processors by hand by essentially snapping Legos together, your computer hardware becomes much more powerful. And when you could use vibraium for heat sinks and cram an entire data center's worth of computer hardware into a thumb drive-sized device, that was only more true.

All of my projects had their projected timelines slashed thanks to the more powerful computer support. Maya wouldn't stop gushing over how she could now see in real time the results of different Extremis variants on different living things. She still had no clue how to stabilize it, or to even limit the energy draw - and we still weren't sure where the energy for Extremis was even coming from - to a level that was survivable, but progress was being made.

I had found my vibranium research shooting forward now as well. Being able to expand individual vibranium molecules to the macro scale allowed for very precise manipulations of molecular structure, as I could now negate only the exact bonds I wanted negated. Precision alloying was now possible.

I couldn't manage vibranium nanites, not until I could figure out how to interact with the energy stored inside the individual vibranium molecules, but I could manage an excellent super-suit. I essentially created molecule scale tunnels out of vibranium and filled the hollow internal areas of those tunnels with the tech. Using various alloys, the suit was flexible enough not to interfere with even Natasha's agility, while still offering near total protection. It could even fly when shrunk, thanks to the wings and minuscule jets built in. Radar stealth was inherent given that the vibranium simply absorbed any radiation that came into contact with it, but visual stealth didn't exist. Negative index of refraction materials were on my research list, but they just kept getting pushed down.

Natasha had just finished putting the completed suit, Black Widow 1.5, through its paces in training, and so I asked, "How do you like it?"

The helmet disappeared, a nifty use of Pym Particles to store it in the suits collar, and she had a massive smile on her face. "I love it. The protection is nice, but the stealth advantages of the size-change are extraordinary. With this, I don't think there is a location I couldn't infiltrate, or a target I couldn't kill before escaping without detection."

I gave my own smile. "Good, because your next infiltration targets are Stark Industries, SHIELD, and the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project. Start with Stark because what I want is the scale model of the 1974 Stark Expo's grounds. It's probably collecting dust in a low-security storage warehouse somewhere, but I have no idea where, so you will need to infiltrate their systems to locate it. From SHIELD, I want as complete a copy of their databases as you can manage. Ideally, I want any investigation to point to Alexander Pierce."

"And Bio-Tech?" she asked, as I paused to take a breath.

"A copy of their research of course, but what I really want is a sample of the original Super Soldier Serum. General Ross got permission to pull one of the last remaining samples out of the vaults for his little project, and I want some of it to go missing."

Her eyes widened slightly at that. "The Captain America formula? At least you think big, Raith, but I would dearly love to know where you are getting all your information. And why some old model in being talked about in the same briefing as that or raiding SHIELD's files?"

I shrugged, "Everyone has to have some secrets, and the enemies that are coming our way in time are the kinds of enemies who could scour Earth clean of life without blinking. I will steal every scrap of power I can in preparation for that fight, and I'm hopeful that Maya will be able to use the Serum to advance and complement Extremis. The Stark Expo model is less immediately relevant, but it will be useful in time, and so we may as well take it before anyone else realizes just how important it really is."

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A/N  
Yes, abuse the Pym Particles. Those things are such absurd bullshit that they make pretty much everything else human invented in the MCU look sane and reasonable by comparison. Incidentally, they are also good for waste disposal. Hmm, gives me an idea for Pym Tech to get into disposing of nuclear waste by just shrinking it down until it goes quantum. Think we will have a Maya chapter next.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	6. Chapter 6

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 6  
-x-x-x-

Maya Hansen examined the fruits of Natasha's actions under a microscope. "Amazing. Dr. Erskine really was a genius. He created his formula more than sixty years ago, and it is still the gold standard for human enhancement."

"I know it's just blood from Captain America, but will you be able to make use of it?" I asked, briefly thinking about the pain that was headed Thaddeus Ross's way when someone realized that one of the two known vials of Captain America's blood, still in the hands of the US government, had gone missing from his vault.

"Oh yes. In fact, I could probably inject the blood straight into the body of anyone who shares the same blood type, O Positive if you are curious, and they would gain significant enhancements." She was mildly stunned by the whole idea.

"Really? How in the world was that managed? Regardless, no wasting the valuable and unique sample on enhancing one individual. I have a general rule: no enhancing people until we understand how the process functions. Otherwise things tend to go really badly."

She looked up and smiled briefly. "No complaints from me. While I am looking forward to the fruits of my labor, I have to be honest: I find the actual work almost more interesting. What I really need to get the best use out of this sample, though, is some of Captain America's blood before he underwent the enhancement process. The Serum was so thorough that it seems to have rewritten and altered literally every cell, so I can't tell what it actually did, just what the end result was. And without the baseline, that is of somewhat limited use."

"Hmm," I said while turning to one of the lab computers and bringing up the stolen SHIELD database. With Pierce's access, it was very complete with the vast majority of files un-encrypted, and I saw no reason to try and keep its contents secret from my team here on Mars. Searching for Project: Rebirth ran into encrypted files that I couldn't break, but searching for Steve Rogers produced a number of less secure files. Almost ten minutes later, I said, "Found it. SHIELD has some of his pre-Serum blood on ice."

"Oh, how hard will it be to get?" Maya said, sounding a bit worried. She had been browsing the SHIELD files and had been left with a healthy appreciation for that organization's security, and her lingering questions about my honesty that had persisted before had also gone away.

I shrugged slightly. "Natasha will have no problem with it. I doubt SHIELD even realizes that they have it. They probably just kept it because they never throw anything out. It's just a collection of numbered vials locked in a freezer in a SHIELD cold storage warehouse. Security is tight, but it's not their best. I'll send Natasha out today or tomorrow, so you should have your sample within a few days."

She smiled. "That's good. Any progress on opening the Project: Rebirth files? I would like as much data as I can get before I start really trying to understand the Serum."

"I have Pym working on it, but I doubt the encryption will be cracked any time soon. Those files are some of SHIELD's most closely guarded. I do know the basics of the process though."

"Oh? Do tell. And where did you find out pretty much anything on the mechanics of Rebirth? Or is that another one of your 'Wizard's Secrets'?" she asked, using the term she had coined a year back to refer to what everyone working for me thought was information pulled basically straight out of my ass, but was really my meta knowledge.

"Yup, another one of my Wizard's Secrets," I joked, before continuing in a more serious tone as I ran another search of the SHIELD files. "Erskine's process had two parts. The first is the Serum that everyone knows about, and the second is a type of radiation that he called Vita Rays. Rogers was injected with the Serum and placed in a chamber that bombarded him with that radiation, and within a matter of minutes, his body was rebuilt from that of a sickly little teen into the Adonis made flesh everyone knows."

"That makes some sense, I suppose, but I don't see how a chemical formula could produce rapid physical changes. The energy has to come from somewhere, and I seriously doubt that Erskine managed to tap into whatever I hit on with Extremis. But what are Vita Rays? I've never even heard that term before," she said.

"No real clue, but I know Howard Stark managed to produce them. And here is the file I was looking for, something called Nitramene." I put the file on the screen. "It was an explosive chemical Howard Stark invented that gave off Vita Radiation, no direct records of the formula in the files though. What's this though...?"

I opened up the file that had caught my attention, a much more recent one that referenced the original Nitramene file. It was a memo written less than a year ago by a SHIELD agent named Felix Blake, advocating that Nitramene be studied. One line in particular made me smile broadly:

"Given the notes I came across when examining the recovered Stark files, I believe that Nitramene's recreation is viable within six to eighteen months, given sufficient resources are dedicated to the project."

I turned back to Maya. "It looks like Natasha has someone else to add to her shopping list. No clue on the timeline for this one though. Kidnapping a SHIELD agent could be easy or it could be tricky." Clearing my throat, I continued, "Now to change the subject, how is Extremis coming along?"

Maya sighed. "It's coming. The new computers have cut years off my projections, and the energy issue is one that I'm still not sure, even theoretically, how I am going to manage to solve. On the plus side though, I've managed to isolate the genetic factors. I don't think I could manage any kind of enhanced abilities beyond the healing, but assuming that the energy problem was solved, then I could implement Extremis today."

"That far along? And I have a potential solution for the energy issue that I am pretty confident will work, but it won't become available for some time yet, potentially years," I said, thinking about the pyro known as Scorch. If I remembered Agents of Shield right, then he would be in China sometime around 2013; got his powers after some reactor meltdown and was added to SHIELD's Index. Pity that no reactors had melted down recently, and that he wasn't currently on the Index. Ah, well, patience solves many problems.

"You know that Extremis is really just using the body's own cells to rebuild it how its DNA says it should be. Customizing it for the individual user isn't hard, but if we want enhancement, then I will need to know the genetic blueprint to program in. That's where something like Erskine's formula comes in. My real work is on trying to handle the energy issue; there is just too much of it, and I can't come up with any way to regulate the flow."

I cocked my head slightly in thought, pulling up my memories of Iron Man 3 and my knowledge of magic. "It's just a theory, but I think you might need to look beyond the purely normal world. I think that you have managed to tap into the dimension of raw life force, for lack of a better term. If that is the case, then you aren't ever going to get stability out of non sentient subjects, because they lack the mind needed to control magic, for lack of a better term. The human mind, however, can control these forces." I made a fireball appear over my hand in demonstration. "The difference is that a Sorcerer like me has to actively draw power, while Extremis naturally draws on whatever its power source is as its default behavior. All it would take is one slip up in your self control, and the individual would blow though. It's not a real solution, but I think you might want to look at some method of bringing more of the brain's functions under conscious control. Or perhaps less of its functions. Even if it doesn't help with the energy problem, it would still probably be a very useful enhancement."

"I'm a scientist, Octavian, not a Sorcerer. I'm willing to test your ideas, but I'll need your help. I mean, I don't even know where to begin when it comes to tracing the energy flows beyond the physical. If you could manage that, then it would at least give us a better understanding of how Extremis works. If your idea looks like it might pan out, then we are going to have to move onto human trials before we planned to." She winced at the concept. "We simply won't be able to test the impact of conscious, deliberate, control without a test subject who is working with us."

"We can shelve the trials for now. I'm pretty confident in my solution to the overheating, so focus on the enhancement part of the project. The Kilgrave team has started hitting pretty hard walls on that project. Albert sent a memo around yesterday that he thinks he has a vaccine figured out, along with the genetic coding needed to produce the ability. Once he has at least a temporary vaccine worked out, I think I'm going to roll Kilgrave into Extremis and have them start working with you both to write the ability into the subject's DNA and, more importantly, to figure out how to write in genetic immunity to that mind control," I explained before saying my goodbyes, giving Natasha her new missions, and heading off to continue with my own projects.

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A/N:  
A bit more of an explanation on my take on Extremis for this fic. And some about the Super Solider Serum. Some things are always fun, and fucking over Thunderbolt Ross is high up on that list. Pity that the worlds needs a Hulk or he would have already been flatlined.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	7. Chapter 7

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 7  
-x-x-x-

With little more than a thought and a bit of concentration, I opened a portal to what I called the Pym Facility. Over two thousand miles away from my main Mars base, it housed nothing but the Pym Particle team and my three unwilling scientists. Hank, Hope, and Darren were dosed daily with Kilgrave, and they all were under orders to not even attempt to find a way around the mind control, contact anyone outside the facility, attempt to harm my operations, or any of a long list of other things, as I tried to close off as many potential loopholes as possible.

And still, I was always just the slightest bit hesitant. Hank Pym was every bit as smart as Tony Stark and had every reason in the world to hate my guts. Keeping him alive was a massive risk, and yet killing him would deprive humanity of one of its greatest minds. With a sigh, I headed towards his cell to pick his brain.

"Hank, have you found any loopholes in the orders I have given you that would allow you to act in a manner you don't think I would like?" I asked, the same question that I had asked him every time I met with him. A good two-thirds of his standing orders had actually come from just this question. I kinda felt bad for him, as he effectively enslaved himself in ever-tighter chains.

"Not since the last time you asked, Octavian. Now what do you want?" he answered.

"Well, for starters, I'm curious about the regulator for the suit. I know that we can take objects down to below ant-size and return them to full-size just fine, and I see little reason that we couldn't at least theoretically take someone sub-molecular, but with the suit, it is a runaway chain reaction once you go past the minimum threshold. What is the cause?" I inquired, taking a seat in a chair near his computer setup.

He spun his own chair to more fully face me and said, "We can take objects smaller because we aren't taking the regulator with them. The problem is that the regulator can only shrink so far before the Pym Particles themselves become so densely packed that the reaction becomes self-sustaining."

"Hmm, could you take a person smaller if their suit didn't need to be able to return them to full-size? If instead an external enlargement station was used?" I said after a moment's thought.

He thought for a few moments and said, "I can't see any theoretical problem with the approach, but why would you want to? Travel times and distances at such small scales are so large that it would virtually never be mission viable."

"Oh?" I held out my hand and a single tiny orange spark could be seen floating over it for a moment until I snapped it closed. "My portals don't need to be macro-scale. Indeed, when I am shrunk, I can make them so small as to be nigh completely invisible to cameras. Much less the naked eye. But no, I wasn't really interested in the field applications. I'm thinking about the surgical and laboratory applications."

He winced at my comment. I guess he hadn't put together just how deadly a combination portals and an ant-sized body would be, but after a moment, he said, "I'm not sure that I follow. What surgical applications?"

I shrugged. "Targeted cancer treatment perhaps? Imagine if you could actually walk around inside the human body and individually kill cancer cells. Or how about nervous system repair? Or the particular use I was specifically thinking about: cybernetic enhancement?"

His eyes went wide. "You want to walk around _inside_ the human body? Are you mad?"

"Probably, at least by most people's standards. But do you see some technical reason that it couldn't be done, or some risk that I am overlooking?" I said, thinking that you had to be at least a little mad if you planned to make war on the heavens and reshape humanity in your desired image.

"No, at least not when combined with a sealed and sterilized suit. But what cybernetic device is driving you to this?" Hank questioned.

"Well, my first thought was to do a full nervous system replacement of everything except the brain, but I have yet to come up with anything that would outperform the human nervous system and doesn't have unacceptable downsides. So, instead I was thinking that I would sheathe the nervous system in vibranium and perhaps lace the bones with it. Build a lattice work of vibranium throughout every bone, and they should become virtually unbreakable without any negative health consequences. I'm not exactly sure what benefits the neural sheathing would have, but I don't see how it would hurt. Besides, it will be good practice for whenever I figure out how to transmit energy through vibranium without magic."

Hank smacked a hand against his face and said, "Did you find the Weapon X files in the SHIELD database you stole or something? Because Logan only survived that abomination thanks to his extreme healing factor."

I blinked, stunned at the implications of what he had just said. To the best of my knowledge, mutants weren't a thing in the MCU, and I didn't think that Wolverine existed. I knew that Magneto and Professor X weren't around, I had already checked on that a while back. Still, I moved to the computer and brought up the database, before running a search for Weapon X.

As the files started coming up, one after the other, and I started reading. "Well fuck me sideways, thanks, Pym. I didn't even know that adamantium was a thing, or that anyone with such an extreme natural healing ability existed. But no, that wasn't what inspired the idea. Well, I will read this all later; let's continue with our conversation. Do you think that you could use vibranium to improve the regulator?"

Hank seemed pissed at himself, not liking that he had given me yet another potential tool, but the commands still forced him to answer honestly. "I never had the opportunity to experiment with it. I still want to know how you got hundreds of pounds of that metal. As far as I'm aware, the total world supply amounted to a little under fifty pounds. I can't think of any immediate use for it, but if you want to supply some for me to experiment with, then I will see what I can do. Your idea for going sub-molecular will probably be more useful in improving the regulator actually. It should allow for a more precise and careful arrangement of the regulator's various pieces. Modern computer hardware and computer modeling would also help. I haven't attempted to improve the suit in a long time, and it's current designs were done with much older technology."

I gave a nod. "I'll make sure you have the needed materials shortly. Anything else before I leave?"

"Why?" I cocked my head interrogatively at his question, and he continued as he waved a hand at our surroundings. "Why are you doing all of this? My suit alone would have been more than enough to let you do whatever you wanted in the world, but instead you seem to be grabbing for everything you can find and pushing ever harder. You already have to be the most powerful man around, so why do you keep us imprisoned here as your slaves?"

I threw my head back and laughed. "Me, the most powerful man around? Not even close, Mr. Pym. There are entities walking the Earth who could crush me like a bug. Tell me, Hank, did Howard Stark ever mention the Tesseract to you? Or maybe you have seen it, a glowing blue cube?"

"No, I've never heard of that or seen any glowing blue cubes. Why?" he asked.

"Because that little glowing blue cube is one of the six most powerful objects in all of existence, and there are things far beyond your comprehension that want it and will do whatever is necessary to possess it. When the Red Skull dug that little cube out of the tiny Norwegian church that it was buried in and used it to equip the Nazis with super weapons, he lit the spark. The age of gods is returning, Mr. Pym, and humanity is not ready. When the Tesseract was used, it was obvious to beings across the breadth of the universe, beings for whom individual planets are akin to American states and with lifespans measured in centuries and millennia, not years and decades.

"The pieces are already moving, and the Apocalypse is no longer some far-off thing. I intend to ensure that humanity survives the oncoming storm, free and triumphant, and to do that we will need to break all the rules. You and those like you are what holds us back from striding across the universe as the equals of every other. You hoard your secrets to preserve a status quo that does nothing but shackle us.

"Your wife was a hero. Her sacrifice probably saved human civilization, and yet, the general public will never know. But she died because of your fear, because of your arrogance, because you refused to let anyone use your technology. You thought that only your family could be trusted, and so only your family could make the sacrifice required. She was a hero, you were a coward.

"Say what you will about Howard Stark, and I have many issues with the man, but he was no coward. His actions made messes and threatened civilization, but at least he was willing to face the risks on the path of progress. Imagine what the world would be like today if you and he had worked together, because I guarantee you that he would have abused your Pym Particles in ways that I haven't even envisioned yet.

"So no Mr. Pym, I have no interest in ruling humanity or limiting others to preserve my relative power. I intend nothing less than gifting every man, woman, and child with divinity. To give them all the power to do as they see fit and leave their marks on the universe."

I stood as I finished my speech. "Now, I've got some other work to do so good day, Mr. Pym." I opened a portal and stepped through to my main base, in search of Natasha.

After looking at the Stark Expo model and finding the atomic structure hidden within, I had decided to alter my plans. I had little interest in waiting several more years before getting an Arc Reactor, and nothing was stopping me from acquiring the services of the other individuals who knew how to make one. It was time to recruit Anton and Ivan Vanko. And Anton also had experience with Vita Rays.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Poor Hank, the whiny little bitch. Great toys though.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	8. Chapter 8

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 8  
-x-x-x-

It was amazing how easy target extraction was when you didn't have to worry about the coverup. Felix Blake was only a mid-level operative, and so no special protections were on his personnel file. From there it was just a matter of me using my suit to shrink down, use magic to go invisible, and then follow him until he walked into a public restroom. While he was taking a leak, a portal opened up under his feet and dropped him straight into a Mars cell.

The man was a SHIELD operative; they would look, but the assumption would probably be made that he decided to go rogue for whatever reason. Especially when Natasha had dealt with the cameras in the area, so that they went offline at the time of his disappearance. Regardless, he wasn't important enough for Fury to call in favors or expend top-tier resources to find, and so the risk was virtually non-existent.

Anton Vanko was a bit more questionable, given that he was on SHIELD's watchlist, but they had his address. When he went out drinking one night, a tiny little human added a little Kilgrave to his drink and gave him some orders when he went to take a leak. A body of the appropriate size and a nice fire covered up his disappearance, and the disappearance of his records. The police report would posit that he fell asleep smoking after a night drinking and burned to death, too drunk to notice he was on fire.

Ivan Vanko was a different story, seeing as he was in a maximum security Russian prison for selling weapons-grade plutonium to terrorists. Fortunately, it was a Russian prison and so a few relatively cheap bribes and a little judicious records editing had him taking a chopper ride to another facility for FSB interrogation, when the chopper suddenly fell off the radar and disappeared without a trace. Natasha's false trail pointed to the Ten Rings extracting one of their associates.

I had thought about keeping the Vanko's free from mind control but ultimately decided against it. I had out of universe knowledge showing me how dangerous Ivan Vanko working for you could be, and the man had been in prison for helping terrorists get nukes. Not to mention that his motivations for going after Tony Stark in the movie aren't the kind of thing that someone who is emotionally stable and sane would have.

His father, on the other hand, was a bitter old man who had already proven that he would sell secrets for cash. Again, not someone who was exactly known for keeping a deal. Besides, I had little sympathy for either of them.

Blake, I did feel a bit bad about. he had just had the dumb luck to know something that I wanted, and his loyalty to SHIELD ran too deep. He would die before be betrayed his oaths to them by working with me.

Once they were all prepared with the appropriate orders, I called together what I was calling the Stark Cell. Much like Pym and Kilgrave, this cell had its own isolated Martian facility. Incidentally, those had gotten much easier to build once I got my hands on Pym Particles, and consisted of the three primary resources and a dozen or so more traditionally loyal scientists.

Recruitment was never that hard considering the kind of signing bonuses I was willing to offer, and that I had both Raith Industries and Pym Technology to use as filters. With Kilgrave questioning to ensure that everyone brought into what was listed only as the Annex, and which all records (assuming that you could gain access) showed was buried in an old mine out in Wyoming. It was easy to weed out the various spies. SHIELD, HYDRA, SHIELD agents who were secretly HYDRA, the Hand, various national intelligence agencies, and even Stark Industries tried once. The car accidents and muggings gone bad were truly tragic. The end result was that I had nearly two hundred scientists working on my various R&D projects. Given that I focused on those without family commitments, that they all knew that immortality was one of our goals, and that it would be on offer for everyone of them, they were relatively okay with being permanent settlers on Mars.

The dozen scientists, three unwilling recruits, Maya, and I were sitting at the conference table. With everyone here, I started to speak. "Welcome to the Stark Cell. Your purpose is primarily going to be to understand and produce proprietary Stark technology. We will start things off with two projects. Blake, you will be focused on understanding and producing Nitramene. Ivan, you will be focused on Arc Reactor technology with the goal of miniaturizing it to a handheld device. Anton will be working with both groups, given his broader relevant knowledge base, while also preparing a report on everything he knows about Vita Radiation and Project Rebirth, before he starts teaching classes to share his knowledge. That should get us started."

The meeting lasted another few hours as we went over everything in more detail, but once it was done, I headed to my private quarters. Natasha jumped off my shoulder and returned to full-size. "Things seem on track, but when are you going to introduce the Vankos to vibranium and Pym Particles?"

"Not until after they produce a basic arc reactor and get the particle accelerator built, so that Howard Stark's new element can be produced. Although I will probably have Pym work with them on the accelerator. Frankly, I like both of them even less than Pym, and I don't trust any of those three, much less all of them collaborating. I would prefer to leave them to their specialties and rotate our scientists through the cells, before having them combine the research. Less chance of things going badly." I waved her to a chair as I poured us some Scotch.

"How's Black Thorn coming along? I saw the memo about the drug production issues having been finally worked out," I said, passing her one drink while sipping my own and taking my seat.

"Our figureheads are ready, I finished the infiltration ops last week, and the kill teams are standing by. Laundering is going to be an issue, but we should be able to clean enough to meet their expectations. I'm still not sure how we are going to clear our profits," she explained.

I waved off the last point. "Who cares? Money is only as useful as what it can get you, and my legitimate funds are more than sufficient for my needs. You know that Black Thorn is really about information, infiltration, and making the drug trade more civilized."

She smiled slightly. "I know, but a girl likes her money piles. I still don't know how you decided that the way to deal with the drug cartels was to replace them. Oh, it will work and so long as the demand exists, someone will supply it, but it seems both too altruistic of you and simultaneously too criminal."

I laughed. "Neither. People are free to ingest whatever substances they want. I might think they are idiots for using drugs, but they are free to be idiots. Given that I consider the laws criminalizing drugs to be foolish, at best, I have no issues with the crime itself. As for altruism, I want the Hand and HYDRA dead, along with the various other terrorist organizations and syndicates. All of them use drugs to fund their operations, and so I am just attacking their funding source.

"With our drug labs off-planet and my portals for delivery, the two hardest parts of the drug trade are solved. Kilgrave takes care of infiltration of the inner circle, your handling of our security arrangements will ensure that they are the best around, and ultimately everyone involved is disposable. At least that thorn is."

"True enough, what do you want me to do next? I still need to grab Rogers' old blood, but I have that scheduled for tomorrow. And then, it's all just routine housekeeping." She sipped her scotch.

"How are the Oracle targets coming?" I said, slipping off my shoes.

"Parker had some blood work done two days ago; I diverted a sample. Castle and Wilson are both still with JSOC in Afghanistan, and both are still impressing. Natchios is playing good little diplomat's daughter while dropping Hand bodies with Stick. Lucas's Force Recon team is in Iraq, and he just re-upped. Jones just got a job, but its not going to last; her boss is a problem. Murdock still has top notch grades," she rattled off, updating me on what my future talent was up to. "You know I've never asked, why them? What makes them so special?"

I stared at my drink for a long moment as I weighed the pros and cons in my head before answering, "I assume that you have surmised that I have seen the future?"

At my question and raised eyebrow, she gave a nod of agreement.

"Frank Castle's family is going to be gunned down in 2015 in an attempt to kill him to cover up his knowledge of certain black ops. He will survive and go on a roaring rampage of revenge that will see New York's streets run red with the blood of criminals. More importantly, he will be one of the most lethal combatants on the planet and saving his family will buy his loyalty forever. I have him earmarked for the full Extremis protocol and think he would make a great teammate for you.

"Wade Wilson is just about as deadly as you or Castle, and after his upcoming dishonorable discharge, he will go mercenary. Sadly for him, he will develop a fatal case of cancer. Extremis will save his life, and he will buy that cure with loyalty.

"Carl Lucas will go on to be a cop before being framed and sent to Seagate Prison. While there, he will be experimented on as part of a secret program to produced enhanced humans. He will leave super strong and bulletproof. Sadly, his morality will keep him off your team, but he will make a great heavy hitter for a more public hero team. Helping to clear his name, along with cleaning up Seagate and some community outreach work, will gain his loyalty. More importantly though, I want his enhancements for Extremis, and given that he is the only success from the Seagate enhancement program, I need to keep things from changing with his timeline until after that point.

"Peter Parker might be just a kid now, but he will be bitten by a genetically engineered spider and will end up enhanced to a level beyond even Captain America. I'm not sure whether or not we will be able to gain anything from studying him, but getting him onto the public team shouldn't be hard. The kid is born to be a hero.

"Elektra Natchios is at loose ends with little real loyalty. Stick will direct her to get close to Murdock in a year or two, but they will go their separate ways when he refuses to kill his fathers killer. At that point, she should be an easy recruitment target, although I might hold off until after Extremis is ready. Again I want her on your team.

"Matt Murdock on the other hand will become a vigilante on his own. He's why I have you setting up that law firm. He might or might not be willing to undergo Extremis to restore his sight, but regardless, he would fit the public team just fine and shouldn't be too hard to recruit. Worst case, we let him be; it's not like he is exceptional enough that we _need_ him, and his morality will get in the way.

"Jessica Jones is already enhanced, but she has some hero potential. I'm actually thinking of recruiting her fairly soon through the law firm to act as their in-house PI. Then, ease her into the public team when it is formed in a decade or so."

I had long decided that Natasha was my second in command. It made sense to have her up to speed on my longer-term plans. Besides, I made it a point to be honest with her, as I wanted to keep her honest with me.

"So Castle, Wilson, Elektra, and myself as what? Some kind of black ops kill squad?" she asked after a moment of processing.

"Something like that. None of you will have much issue with the kind of dirty work that I have you doing right now, and if the full Extremis package pans out along with the armor, you will all be top-tier players. My goal is to build a team around that core to fight the big shit that is coming."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Who else on this "big shit" team?"

"Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor, Captain America, Dr. Strange, Black Panther, and myself," I listed off without explanation.

"Oookk, that seems a _little_ random. Are you going to explain that or should I just wait and see?" she questioned, reasonably given the current nature of those future heroes.

I smiled. "Wait and see, all of them will impress you in time."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
So I decided to drop some pretty big hints about future plans and antics, and introduced the other X-Men related character (planned on Wade since before I started this story actually).

Just imagine the fun of the Punisher, the Black Widow, Elektra, and Deadpool all with fully enhanced bodies, and advanced Vibranium Ant-Man suits. Some how I don't think the opposition is going to much like that particular team.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	9. Chapter 9

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 9  
-x-x-x-

I was in the Extremis lab, astrally projected, and meditating on the Extremis enhanced pig in front of me, trying to follow its energy flows to wherever they originated from, when Maya exclaimed, "This is such bullshit!" and broke my concentration.

I returned to my body and said, "What? I had almost man..." the pig went boom but was thankfully contained behind the vibranium-sapphire glass box it was in.

I sighed. "Well, I need another pig, so what is such bullshit?"

Maya threw up her hands. "Erskine's Serum. Thanks for having Natasha grab those other vials when she picked up Steve's blood, but this is such bullshit. The blood of this Logan seems like it was the key to the process. Its cells heal like nothing I have ever seen before, and even after having been frozen for half a century, they are still not just alive but aggressively hostile to all other life. One drop of that blood on a bit of organic protein, and within minutes, it had acted like the most aggressive cancer imaginable and consumed every cell present, turning them all into perfect copies of itself.

"This is the source of Captain America's healing factor, but I honestly think that was just a happy side-effect. This is what Erskine used to get his formula to rewrite the body. Ok, amazing enough, but the fucker managed genetic engineering that would be bleeding edge _today_ in the 1930's. Somehow he modified the Logan cells to integrate the host DNA and literally rebuild the subject's body, cell by cell. Except he seems to have isolated a laundry list of other physical traits and had them replace anything that they were superior to."

She shook her head and took a breath before continuing her rant. "Captain America was said to be the peak of human potential, and I think that was actually a totally honest statement. It's like Erskine went around the world and found whatever human was the absolute pinnacle of any given trait, isolated the DNA responsible for that trait, and programmed it into the Logan cell base. The end result is purely human, but it is literally the best possible human, well, except for the healing factor."

I whistled before saying, "Ok, that is some BS. Do you have _any_ idea how he managed that? Or what role the Vita Rays played?"

"No, the technology to do this just didn't exist back then. Even if he knew exactly what he was doing and had all of the genetic samples on hand, the tech just wasn't capable of performing the needed tasks. I _might_ be able to manage something like that with the tech in this lab, but it would take years of dedicated effort. It's like he waved his hand and just got the result he wanted.

"And the Vita Ray's, I've read Anton's notes on them, and I will test it once Blake gets me a Vita Ray source, but I still don't really believe it. I mean, come on, glowing yellow healing radiation that just makes living things _healthier_? If that was true, you could just make a healing bed or something where you lay a person on it, and they are healed like a miracle. There has to be some downside to this." She hesitated. "Well, besides the only known source of Vita Radiation being a violently explosive chemical that explodes with more power than modern bombs."

I winced. Yeah, the safety briefing on Nitramene was basically a laundry list of things not to do, because it would make the substance explode. It included breathing on it too hard.

"But what purpose do you think the Vita Ray's served?" I asked again, having no real clue myself.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, but if you want my best guess?" She looked at me, and when I nodded, she continued. "I think it plays some role in integrating the raw formula with the subject's own cells. Nothing I can find in my examination of the samples can even begin to explain how that integration is handled, so I'm going with the magical healing rays taking care of that part until, and unless, some better information comes along."

I stilled as a thought occurred to me, "I wonder..."

After a long pause on my part, Maya said, "You wonder...what?"

"You said it was like Erskine waved his hand, and his will was done, and then called them magical healing rays. You also seem very certain that the technology to do what was done did not even begin to exist at the time. Given that we know magic is real, Occam's Razor would seem to indicate that he did use a spell or spells to do it," I answered, explaining my musings.

Maya looked at me in surprise. "You mean magic can do something like that? I thought it pretty much all teleportation and energy constructs and such."

I shook my head. "No, magic is probably the most versatile thing around. If you knew the exact atomic structure of what you wanted, had the power to throw at it, and were skilled enough with your spells, then you could effectively create matter out of thin air. I don't even begin to have the skill to do something like the DNA manipulation you are talking about, but I can't think of any reason that it would actually be impossible."

"Well, could you wave your hand or whatever and figure out if he used magic from the sample we have?" she asked in mild shock.

Again, I shook my head. "No, any such traces would be long gone, and that assumes they would have stuck around anyway. Magic and living things have an interesting relationship. But I know someone who could tell me if Erskine knew how to use magic. She might even know if he did create the Serum with magic. I think I'll pay her a visit once Blake gets a sample of Nitramene produced. I want her to look at that as well."

After thinking about the issue a bit more, I shrugged slightly and said, "Does this change anything with the Extremis plans? Was his approach with the Logan cells better?"

It was her turn to shake her head definitively in the negative. "No. Even if you totally ignore the energy differences, Extremis is much more precise and much more controllable. Once it is completed, we will be able to program in the exact genetic blueprint we desire and have it reshape the subject's body to that blueprint. I'll need to isolate and extract the individual genetic improvements from Captain America's blood, but once I have that done, then I will be able to use our computing power to integrate everything and troubleshoot it all before the Extremis is created and injected. His method is amazing, and near miraculous for his time period, regardless of how he managed the mechanics of creating the Serum, but time and technology march ever onward. I can do much better with sixty years of progress."

I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was time to leave. I had a business meeting with the CEO of MGM to negotiate a deal for Netflix to stream their whole catalog. It was nowhere near as interesting as playing with magic or mad science, but appearances had to be maintained, and someone had to pay the bills. "Well, I have a Raith Industries meeting to get to. I'll let you know what I find out about the Serum."

I didn't get to make good on that promise for nearly two weeks, as it took Anton and Blake that long to produce Nitramene. Once I had a sample of that, stored in a vibranium-laced container and being held in stasis via magic, I opened a portal to Kamar-Taj and went to visit my teacher.

She stepped through her own portal to meet me in her tea room with impeccable timing, just one of those many subtle indications that she was tied deeply into the Time Stone and knew what had and would happen with a degree of specificity that was unfathomable. I bowed to the waist. "Ancient One, it's a pleasure to see you again. Anything interesting on the mystical side recently?"

"Cyttorak found another potential host and manifested. I have him trapped in a time loop in a Mirror Realm pocket dimension. That should tie him up for a good decade or so. But you didn't come to hear the news, Octavian, you came to ask for my aid."

I smiled and gave a slight head bow. "No reason to not be polite, though. I still find it perpetually amusing that you indulge me."

"You are an interesting man, Octavian. You have knowledge that you shouldn't, knowledge that would terrify most anyone into mewling incoherence, and yet, you simply accept it and move on. You know my power better than any of my disciples, and have a deeper understanding of just how far I will go to do my duty, and yet, you treat me as a respected teacher and not with near sycophantic idolatry. You have no real qualms about coming to me to ask questions both petty and profound, and yet, whether I answer or not, you accept it either way. You offer the question and let me choose my response without pressure.

"That your relationship to power is one of extreme paradox is also odd. You will do virtually anything for power, and yet you will suddenly stop and forgo massive power without a qualm simply because you don't want to pay the price. Many others have the wisdom to refuse the proffered power, but you are near unique in that you simply cease to care about it once you have decided that a given path is not for you. So ask your questions."

"Even if you already know what they will be?" I said with a teasing smile, continuing a verbal spar that had started when we first met and continued to this day.

At the same time we both said, "That may be so, but the proper forms must be obeyed, Octavian."

"Was Dr. Erskine a Sorcerer, and did he use magic to produce his Super Solider Serum?" I said, asking my first question.

We were suddenly inside the Mirror Dimension and with a slight finger twitch from the Ancient One, I was following her as she walked through the compound and gave me an answer.

"Oh yes, young Abraham was perhaps the most gifted biomancer that I ever had the pleasure to teach. He came here for the first time in 1918, but he didn't seriously start on his magnum opus until he met that Logan fellow. Before then, he limited himself to minor genetic tweaks for individuals, but when he saw what Logan's blood could do, he was inspired. He even appealed to me for permission to use the Eye of Agamotto, although I think he was quite surprised when I granted it. But he was deep in meditation for nearly a month, as he scoured humanity from its first birth to its final end, and plucked the DNA of whomever in all of human history had the most superior expression of a given trait. Once he had his samples, he spun them into his base, Logan's blood, until he had his Serum," she explained, causing my eyes to widen in astonishment, and my body to stumble as I lost a step.

Peak of human potential indeed.

"And the Vita Radiation?" I asked quietly as I opened a portal and plucked the orb filled with Nitramene from where it was resting on my bed, before offering it to my teacher.

She held it up to glance at more closely, and then it appeared back in my hand, her portal formed so seamlessly that it simply appeared one instant and was gone the next.

"Chi. I am still stunned that Howard Stark managed to produce what is effectively a Chi generator, but he did, if one that is violently unstable," she answered.

"Like the Iron Fist?" I said, processing the provided data and trying to produce various hypotheses for what she would say next.

She gave a slight nod. "Yes, he is probably the most prominent Chi user around. But Chi is the energy of life, every living thing produces some and radiates it. Stark's chemical supercharges the chi production of the nitrocellulose base, and the excess is given off as visible radiation where it is then absorbed by other living things and strengthens their own chi to its limits. Of course, much like with Mr. Schmidt, the individual's chi reflects their soul, and the body reflects the chi. Abraham used the Chi energy to supercharge the host's natural body. With the extra energy, it would allow the cells to partially overwrite the serum and cause the result to be shaped by the body and soul of the subject."

"Interesting, even if I wouldn't have come up with that in my wilder hypothesis. So is Chi extra-dimensional or something native to life?" I asked, continuing my role as questioning pupil eager to learn.

"Entirely native, it is one of the very few things that doesn't actually have a direct dimensional parallel. The closest would be the Phoenix Force but that is the fires of rebirth, not life," she answered, and I gave a start.

"The Phoenix Force is real?" I said, quite stupidly, it must be noted.

She smiled beatifically. "Certainly." With a flick of her hand, my soul was out of my body, and our astral forms were flying through the multiverse until we came to stop on a realm made up of nothing but the raw fires of creation and destruction, the duality only expressed as rebirth. We were only there moments before another finger flick had us back in our bodies.

"Even_ I _need to be careful around that force. Too long there, and even the greatest of gods will die," she explained.

I gave a knowing head shake and said, "Why do I have the feeling that the only reason that you mentioned the Phoenix Force is because it will benefit me to know about it? And given what you have said, and what projects I am going to do, why do I have a feeling that what Extremis is really doing is tapping into that slight bit of potential every human has to be a host to the Phoenix Force and using the barest sliver of those flames of rebirth to rebuild the host's body along the provided lines? Almost like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, one might say."

She gave a slight smile and said, "One might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment. Now come, let's spar, and you better have kept up with your training, or I will have you back here for remedial lessons."

Her timing was again perfect as we entered the courtyard right as she mentioned sparring.

"Of course, Sensei."

We both bowed slightly to one another and then the match was on, shooting forward from all ten fingers were flaming whips that were coming straight at me in complete indifference to gravity. I waved my sling ring and accelerated my personal reference frame ten fold, before dancing through the lances of energy as if they were moving through molasses.

I counterattacked with a foot-long blade formed from my right hand and driven through a quick portal that opened behind my opponent's back. She smiled broadly as her body simply split in two with perfect timing as I struck nothing but air, and now faced two opponents, perfectly synchronized of course. One rushed forward to close into melee range, while accelerating her own reference frame to match my own. The other ripped me back into the normal flow of time and took me even further into slow time. I had barely formed a thought when her blade was resting on my neck.

Then I returned to normal time as the stasis was released, and she said, "Good match, again."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
More of the mechanics of things explained. Trying to fill in plot holes and make everything mesh in a decently consistent manner, hope you all enjoy the lengths I go to to please you all. If you aren't pleased then check yourself into a nut house as you are clearly insane.

Also decided to show off a bit more magic and what it is really capable of. You have to remember that for all of Strange's skill he was still just starting his journey and the vast majority of Sorcerers are far too fussy over that pesky "respect the natural laws" commandment to really have fun.

And yes, for the Worm comparison. The Ancient One is kinda like Contessa with Eidolon's powers added on and with full control over those powers. This is a women who can throw down with Odin in full fury and match him blow for blow, when she is serious combat amounts to "Bitch, please".

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	10. Chapter 10

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 10  
-x-x-x-

The rest of 2004 was largely both peaceful and quiet, at least for me. My team was kept quite busy though.

While the Kilgrave team completed their vaccine - take it every two weeks, and you were quite thoroughly immune to that little mind control virus - they had moved on to figuring out a permanent genetic immunity to it. Maya had been co-opted into helping them, and those teams were busy trying to figure out how to copy Erskine's work, in a much more limited manner, using technology. The issue with genetic alteration had always been propagating the needed changes throughout the body, and while Extremis solved that problem, it was not viable until the explosion issue was solved. The Logan cells could do the same thing naturally, if in a more limited manner.

Blake and Anton were making good progress on stabilizing Nitramene but, while it would make a decent explosive, I considered that to ultimately be a failure. The increased stability was being achieved by coming up with ways that the reactants could be bonded to inert carriers until those bonds were broken with a catalyst, at which time you got a boom. Much safer to handle, but it also only produced Chi when it went boom, as opposed to the slower and continuous, if very temperamental, original process. Explosives were cool and all, but safer Chi generation was much more interesting. We did create a Vita Ray healing room though, even if it was kept very far away from anything else because of the boom potential inherent in the tons of liquid Nitramene that were flowing through its walls and floors.

Those experiments were fun, and it turns out that you can overload a living thing on life itself. Many animals went boom after too long in the chamber, but on the plus side, it would keep subjects with even the most horrific of injuries alive and even heal them. Even the relatively recently dead could be raised, so long as the body was mostly whole, and the brain was intact, although that made the people we tested it on go bug-fuck nuts. Considering that we were using criminals for those tests, imagine that base line, increase all emotions to extremes otherwise only reachable with very strong drugs, and remove any impulse control. It was like an unholy combination of every mind-altering street drug.

Over time, the subjects would settle down as the excess life energy was depleted, but that didn't make things much better, given that the extreme mental imbalances that they experienced rewired the brain and altered neurotransmitters much like many drug users experienced. They kept wanting the next high, and their brains were still fucked. I knew that the Hand used a Chi-based method to resurrect people, and that while it tended to cause mental issues, they were nowhere near as extreme as my process, so I figured I was missing some stabilization method that they knew.

In the end, the chamber was relegated to basically fixing minor ailments and as the ultimate coffee break. Productivity across my teams had skyrocketed as ten minutes in the chamber at the end of the day seemed to have the same rejuvenating effects as eight hours of sleep and a nice meal. I couldn't use it with the Kilgrave recipients, as it would purge the virus from their systems, but for everyone else it ended up almost doubling their productivity, at least on the days when I was around to open the needed portals. Well, fixing minor injuries and serving as a meditation room for me.

Thanks to my training in the mystic arts, I could feel energies inside my body much more precisely, and in the Chi room, my Chi was flooded to such an extent that I could identify an energy that had always been underneath my conscious notice before. Progress on trying to harness my Chi was slow, as I had no teacher, and the Ancient One's only advice had been to go and find a Chi master, not a magic master, if I wanted training in the art. But progress was made, millimeter by millimeter.

My project to understand vibranium was going even slower. We had basically hit a brick wall when it came to finding out how to extract energy from it, and until that was solved, there was only so much we could do. Oh, we had gotten much better at using the metal and doing practical tests to figure out of what various alloys were capable of, but real understanding was still illusive. Where success_ was _had was in vibranium bone enhancement. Pym had completed the needed lab upgrades, so that we could take someone down small enough to walk around in the human body without real issue. From there, it was kinda like carefully mining out a given bone, building an entire network of tunnels throughout it, and then filling those tunnels one by one with vibranium molecules. Bonding to the bone was accomplished by using titanium as a medium; you had one molecule of Vibranium inside a molecule-thick shell of titanium, which was itself bonded to the bone. The procedure took forever to complete, almost a thousand hours on the table, but it was safe and very effective.

Having a skull that could bounce anti-material rifle rounds at point-blank range was very cool, even if that particular experience would still probably cause your spinal cord to end up torn. Natasha and I were very happy with our upgrades though. I was still looking forward to the future phase of the project where we rebuilt the entire skull to basically include an integrated Ant-Man helmet and a Pym Particle distribution network throughout the whole body, so that you could safely shrink without a suit, but progress was slow on that front. Some factor that we hadn't identified was interfering with the process, and so the mind didn't end up shielded.

Ivan Vanko had proven himself to have a rare flare for arc reactor technology and had managed to produce a miniature arc reactor using the starkium core after almost a year of dedicated effort. Once he had the first example and the team knew how to build them, improvements came fast. Pym-based molecular manufacturing allowed a degree of precision engineering and production tolerances that just weren't possible at any other scale, while vibranium shielding allowed for components to be environmentally isolated, even when only a few molecules distant from one another. We had replaced all of our facilities' power generation with arc reactors, which had both saved me money and time - no more having to buy and transport the massive amounts of diesel required for the generators - and increased our available power budgets to effectively limitless levels.

With the arc reactor tech having been improved to the point where anything better was liable to be fairly minuscule gains, I had moved Ivan onto figuring out repulsor technology. Given that his father had worked with Howard Stark for years, he had a good starting point, but the technology that Anton knew was nowhere near the weaponized state that Stark Industries had advanced it to today.

Once I had the arc reactors, I had taken the time to redesign our armored suits to integrate the new and improved technology. The ability to operate on an even smaller scale than had previously been possible let me actually make relatively limited nanites. The outer shell was vibranium with a hollow core, and in this core was stuffed an arc reactor, computing equipment, pathways for Pym Particles to flow through, and all of the other bits and pieces of tech required to make the suit function. The individual cells locked together using adamantium locks, mere molecules in size. It was cool, massively so, and it made the wearer the next best thing to invincible but ultimately it was still effectively un-powered armor for all that it had enough power generation to keep the lights on across a continent. The problems were numerous but came down to the fact that working around vibranium's energy absorption abilities was a bit of a bitch, and that making artificial muscles that operated at this scale without massive negative trade-offs was beyond my tech. If the whole suit was pure vibranium, then it pretty much wouldn't be able to interact with the environment on a macro-scale, as the kinetic energy the user's muscles exerted was all just absorbed into the vibranium. So, instead, there were also the adamantium nanites that created a framework to move the whole edifice.

All in all, the super strength, much less many of the other more exotic ideas I wanted in the future, had to wait. Still, Natasha was very happy with the Widow Mk. 2, and I quite liked my own Exalt armor.

Not that we had much use for our new toys. I got much more use out of the vibranium-alloy under-suit I had made for daily civilian wear and assassination protection, while Natasha was busy spending her time building up our criminal empire. With her skills alone, she could have made the Kingpin look like a joke, but giving her the technology I had made her a threat so far beyond even the top-tier criminals that it was cheating. Which was fine with both of us; a win was a win, and fair fights were for suckers.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Mostly just a house keeping chapter. Next chapter introduces someone fun.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	11. Chapter 11

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 11  
-x-x-x-

"Bug Ward sales are significantly exceeding projections, and as a result, our quarterly profit margin was ten percent over projections for last quarter," announced Frank Scheef, the CEO of Pym Technologies, as he finished his briefing.

I gave a nod. "More money is always nice, but work with Tyler," the Raith Industries VP of Information, and the man who was ultimately responsible for all of our projections, "to figure out why the projections were off. That big a variance means something was overlooked." The two men gave their own nods of acceptance, and I turned to one of the women present, "Michelle, how are the controllable bees coming?"

Raith Industries' Head of Bio Science, at least for everything that wasn't kept fully black, shrugged slightly. "We are still running into some problems trying to modify their DNA to produce nervous systems susceptible to the EMP communication device. It's mostly just a matter of testing various simulated models until we find the right answer, another six months maybe, but that's mostly just an educated guess. The real problem is going to be the regulatory approval when we start trying to produce the live bugs, and Maddox is who you should be asking about that."

I turned to the Raith Industries' General Counsel at that and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm working through the process, but we are talking about creating a new, self-replicating, genetically-engineered species. If this was a military project, then it wouldn't be too bad, we could get the approval through DoD and their various exemptions and immunities. But you wanted to keep this away from the military contracts, and that means dealing with much more stringent standards. Honestly, I'm not sure if we can manage to make it legal under current law. I'm waiting on various formal opinions from the relevant agencies. My inclination though is that we are going to have to get the law changed."

I winced at that. Changing laws wasn't so much difficult as it was time-consuming, expensive, and risky. "Get started planning for that. At least in this case, we should be able to get the farm lobbies on our side. Start feeling out our competitors as well. I can't imagine that they are any happier with the current regulatory framework for non-human genetic experimentation than we are. Maybe we can come up with something that is acceptable to us all and get it approved, as opposed to a simple exception for the bees.

"Now about the..." I broke off what I was going to say when one of my security people entered the room, came over to me, and whispered into my ear, "Natalie said to tell you that Green Gambit has gone active."

I gave him a quick thanks before turning to the people who managed my legitimate business interests and said, "My apologies everyone, a personal matter has come up and I'm going to have to reschedule," before leaving.

Once I was in my car, and with security who were part of my inner circle, I opened a portal to my Earth-side control center and stepped through. "Talk to me, Natasha."

She turned from the computer monitor and said, "Banner has gone Hulk and wrecked the Culver lab. Betty Ross is currently in the hospital and is expected to survive."

Most of the next month was spent with the two of us in armor, keeping an eye on things as events proceeded and dealing with the fallout. Finally though, on May 19th, Bruce managed to cross into Canada and break contact with Ross's troops after wrecking a border outpost. That event was suitably public that Ross was called before the Congressional Oversight Committee to explain his failings. Unfortunately for him, a little spider was waiting, and a sniper's bullet took off his head as he exited his car. The evidence would lead, tentatively of course, to Hammer Industries. Nothing could be proven, of course, but it appeared that Ross had a very cozy relationship with Justin Hammer, and the surmise by those in the know was that Hammer feared what he might say before Congress.

At the same time, the Ancient One and I were watching a lone campfire deep in the Canadian wilderness, and the man sleeping next to it, from the Astral Plane.

"Oh my, you do bring me the most interesting things, Octavian. Do you know what he is?" she asked.

"A man who will prove himself a great hero," I answered, deliberately misunderstanding the question.

"Very droll, and yes, he will be. But that wasn't what I was referring to. Tell me Octavian, what does divinity look like to you?" she asked, a hint of a chuckle in her voice.

"Divinity? I'll grant that he certainly has extraordinary power, but then, so do you, or even I for that matter. So why do you refer to Banner as divine?" I questioned.

"Because he is, Octavian. Divinity isn't a matter of power, although by its very nature, everyone who is divine will be extraordinarily powerful. No, someone is divine when they become the living embodiment of a reality. Take Odin, he is Asgard in a very real sense. The only ways to defeat him are to destroy Asgard, or to defeat him under the rules of Asgard. This man before us did something that has only occurred four times previously in all of human history: he made himself into the embodiment of an unclaimed reality. What makes him truly unique is that this is the first time it has been done through science, and not magic. Bruce Banner is the very embodiment of anger," she explained.

"And given the nature of the emotional-conceptual realities, so long as anger exists, that reality will exist. So if he is the embodiment of that reality, then so long as it exists, he too will exist," I said.

"Good, you were paying attention to your studies. You stopped one step short of full understanding though. Banner is the first entity to have ever embodied anger. In effect, he is the elder god of a new pantheon, a truly extraordinary event. Do you know that in all the infinite possible futures that existed before his ascension, he died in all but this one? Now that he exists, he was always going to exist, and given the timeless nature of anger, he has always existed and will always exist, but I could see the odds of him existing before he did exist, and they were so minute as to be incalculable." Her explanation quickly grants me a headache, with the temporal mechanics and paradoxes that were almost inherent when little things like elder gods and the Time Stone came into play.

"He will make an interesting student for you," she said before disappearing back to her body, giving her implicit approval to my plan.

I, too, returned to my body, resting in the Mirror Dimension, and then snapped my fingers, as I ripped Bruce into the Mirror Dimension with me.

He was on his feet and looking all about, but froze when he saw me.

"Relax Bruce, I'm just here to talk." I retracted my face mask.

"Octavian Raith? What are you doing here and where is here?" he questioned, obviously recognizing my face.

"I came to speak with you. It's not every day that something as eye-catching as your little transformation occurs, and I've been tracking you ever since you wrecked the Bio-Tech lab. I was waiting for an opportunity to talk. As for where we are, it's called the Mirror Dimension." I raised a hand as he went to interrupt. "Sounds all mystical I know, but I didn't develop the name. Think about it as having moved sideways in time the slightest amount, but the exact nature of this environment isn't really relevant though. What is relevant is that you are I are the only people in this particular Mirror Dimension, and if you go all green rage monster, then nothing in the real world will be damaged. Given that our conversation may well make you angry or afraid enough to go big and green, I figured it was only neighborly of me to ensure that no one else suffers any consequences from that eventuality."

It seems I offended him as suddenly I was face-to-face with the Hulk. I triggered my helmet to re-deploy, but otherwise just stood there and said, "Interesting, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hulk. If it's not too much trouble, though, Mr. Banner and I were having a bit of a conversation."

He roared at me and swung a fist. I stopped it with two fingers, the Vibranium that made up my suit absorbing the energy. The routine, him punching me to no effect, continued for a few more iterations before the Hulk roared again and took a massive leap. Unfortunately for him, I had tagged him with a tracking spell and could just portal after him.

Almost two hours later, he was Banner again, and I said, "Calmed down now? Shall we chat Bruce?"

He had to visibly control himself, but eventually, he waved for me to sit on the ground besides him. "What do you want?"

I gave him a small smile. "To help you. Well, that and to recruit you. My R&D team could use someone of your genius."

"I won't be your weapon," he snarled back and started to stand.

I laughed. "Calmly Bruce, calmly. I don't want or need you as a weapon. At the moment, your alter ego is an out of control ball of anger and rage. At best, he is a weapon in the same way that a nuke is a weapon. No finesse, no precision targeting, just large scale destruction. Useful in some very rare situations, but extreme overkill with far too much collateral damage the vast majority of the time. No, I prefer controlled, precise, applications of force in my weapons.

"Besides, I already have my own abilities. Do recall that I shifted us sideways in time, Banner, and that this armor let me tank your alter ego's blows without flinching. No, I have no need to use you as a weapon, I already have all the 'weapons' that I need."

He sat back down a moment later and said, "Fine, say that I believe you. It doesn't matter, I've killed people and wrecked a lot of army equipment. Not to mention that I turn into a giant monster every time I get angry or afraid. I can't work for you."

"Oh? Let me be the judge of that. While I don't have the ability to clear things up with the government, I do have the resources to keep you hidden from them, and I am more than willing to provide you with a lab, lab assistants, and all the resources that you want or desire. I'm sure you want to study what happened to you, and you love science too much to ever be happy outside of a lab."

"That may all be true, Raith, but it doesn't help me with my alter ego."

I gave a nod. "True. But this does." I waved a hand at our surroundings. "I can give you an environment to gain control in, without any fear that you will harm anyone else. I also have access to resources and knowledge that you haven't even begun to imagine exists. Let's talk about your little change. Did Ross ever tell you what that Serum you were working with was?"

Bruce's gaze sharpened, and he had an intent look in his eyes. "No, but I had some guesses."

"Well, it might interest you to know that his Serum was the blood of Captain America, one of the only known samples actually. Given that you had the same blood type, injecting it into your veins would have made you decently superhuman in its own right, but then you had to go and bombard yourself with massive amounts of gamma radiation. The results were interesting, and unexpected. I'm slightly surprised that you survived, but that's another matter.

"The point I was going to make is that I have in my employ the world's foremost expert on Dr. Erskine's work, and that our understanding of it is beyond what you will find anywhere else. If you want to understand what happened to you, then my labs are the best place for you to work."

"Who are you? Yeah, Raith Industries is doing some interesting work, but you don't even have a bio-enhancement program to my knowledge," he questioned.

"You ever hear of Maya Hansen?" I shot back.

"Yeah, she was doing some interesting work and published a few ground breaking papers, before she dropped off the grid back in 2000. As far as I know, she hasn't done anything interesting since."

"Oh, she's done plenty of interesting things, we just don't publish. Dr. Hansen is running my human enhancement program and has a better grasp on the Serum than anyone else living."

"Making super soldiers, Raith? I wasn't all that comfortable with that when I was doing it for the US government, what makes you think I would be willing to help a private company make them?" he asked, not sounding all that happy with my pitch.

"Not super soldiers, Bruce, at least not as you imply. No, our goal is far larger than making mere soldiers. What we are attempting to do is produce a safe, affordable, process to give anyone who wants it a body on par with Captain America's and regeneration advanced enough that they will never again fall ill and never need to fear dying of old age. I've looked at the petty bullshit going on in the world Bruce and it disgusts me. So many small minded people fearful of change and enamored with a status quo that threatens us all," I said with passion in my voice.

Bruce snorted. "Right, you think you've cracked the code to immortality, and you want to share it with everyone? Make your lies a little more believable, Raith."

"No lie, Bruce, and I'm not the one who cracked it. What I am going to be is the one who _mass produces_ it. I mean, it's not like immortality is exactly unknown. Hell, you just went and made yourself more immortal than anyone else on the entire planet," I countered, running through the _long_ list of methods that had been used in the MCU for immortality - much less Marvel in general.

"WHAT? What do you mean?" Banner shouted.

"Exactly what I said, Banner. You've seen how fast and completely you heal now, so think about it. Perfect cellular regeneration means that you will not age and are thus immortal. Erskine's formula made Captain America the same way, and it was based on the blood of someone who was naturally that way. Other people have found their own ways into immortality over the eons as well, but what makes you exceptional when talking about immortals is that you went even further.

"To understand this I'm going to have to explain some of the nature of the universe to you, so bare with me for the moment. Ok?" I offered.

Bruce was deep in thought for a moment, clearly thinking about what I had said. "Ok, and I suppose you are right that my body won't age, given my regeneration. I'll listen, but only because this," he waved at the world around us, "is far enough outside what I know about physics to indicate that my knowledge is fundamentally flawed."

"Not flawed, just incomplete. The first thing you need to understand is that the physical world is only one level of existence. Indeed, it is best described as the synthesis of every other reality. I'm sure you have noticed how oddly things behave in high energy physics, or when you start talking about quantum physics. The reason for that oddity is that human science is just now brushing the edge of the greater existence. We are tentatively touching the boundaries between our reality and others.

"Now, every living thing exists on multiple levels of existence at the same time. One of those is called the Astral Plane, and it is the home of your soul, for lack of a better term. Think of it as the inherent energy that makes you, you, as far as existence is concerned. This plane acts as a gateway to countless others, but what concerns us right now are what are called emotional-conceptual realities.

"Think about an RPG or fantasy with things like a Plane of Love or Lust or Chaos or Order. These aren't physical things, and yet they can be said to exist. Whether the concept or the reality came first is unknown, but what matters is that every time you feel any emotion, you are feeding energy to that reality, or perhaps you are feeling that emotion because of a surge in energy from that reality. The mechanics are pretty fuzzy, and there is a reason that most everyone who deals with this stuff calls it magic.

"With me so far?" I said, giving Bruce a very basic primer on moderately advanced magical theory.

"Not really, no. I'm following what you are saying, but I think you're kinda nuts. Please continue though," he answered frankly.

"Good enough. What matters for you is that you managed to tap into one of those emotional-conceptual realities in your little experiment. If the normal connection between one's soul and one of these realities could be described as a 120 volt outlet in a home, you went and mainlined the full power of a nuclear reactor. It should have killed you, your body should have exploded with enough power to level most of Virginia. Fortunately for both you and everyone on the East Coast, you managed to absorb that energy. In your case, you tapped into the, for lack of a better term, Anger Reality and mainlined it through your soul. And that connection is permanent - it altered your soul in fundamental ways.

"You have, in effect, made yourself the very embodiment of Anger, and so as long as that reality continues to exist, so too will you," I said, having decided that I would be honest with Bruce and give him the full story instead of trying to deceive him.

"Right, I'm done, crazy man. This is such bullshit." Bruce stood.

"Oh, bullshit is it?" I waved a hand and a portal opened under us, suddenly we were sitting on the moon.

I was fine, thanks to the sealed environment provided by my suit, but Bruce immediately started to suffocate. Moments later, he was the Hulk in full fury. After letting him rage around on the mirror moon, I opened another portal and dropped him in the mirror of Betty Ross's living room where she was grieving, having just received the news of her father's assassination.

When the Hulk saw Betty he froze and, not seeing me, calmed down. Once Bruce was back to himself, I showed myself again.

"Exposed to the vacuum of space, and you are just fine Bruce. You can't cure yourself of the Hulk, but I can teach you how to harness and control its power. Since I know you don't really believe me right now, I will also give you all those resources you will need to attempt your cures. But that's for another time. I brought you here because General Ross was assassinated a little while ago on the steps of the Capitol, and Miss Ross just got the news. I thought she could use a friend." I finished before kicking him out of the Mirror Dimension and into his girlfriend's living room, before sitting in to watch.

I had to make sure he didn't try and tell anyone my secrets. I absolutely was not abusing massive cosmic power to watch a daytime soap opera. Nope, no siree bob.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Filling in blanks with stuff that I hope is at least internally consistent and doesn't flat out contradict the source material. And the Hulk is cool and all, but Banner is cooler.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	12. Chapter 12

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 12  
-x-x-x-

Betty and Bruce had been talking for about twenty minutes before the spy drones I had monitoring the area let me know that several teams of MP's were on their way to secure the house. It seems that someone had grown a brain and decided that maybe it was a good idea to secure Ross's home as part of the investigation into his assassination.

Well, time to get to work. I stepped back into reality and said, "Sorry to interrupt, Bruce, but a number of MP's are about five minutes out. They are coming to secure the house as part of the investigation into the General's assassination, and I really doubt you want to be here when they get here."

Betty yelped at my appearance, whipped her head back around to look at Bruce as she mumbled, "So it was true," turned back to me and said, "Who are you?"

I retracted my mask, gave a slight bow, and said, "Octavian Raith, Miss Ross, my condolences on your loss. I do wish that we had more time to talk, but unless we want the military to know that the Hulk was here, and the neighborhood wrecked, it's best if we leave." I then made the appropriate hand gesture and a business card appeared in my hand, apparently out of thin air, and in reality only returned to normal size from where it had been stored inside one of my glove's nanite cells, until the pre-programmed hand gesture triggered its growth. "My card, I should be able to have something set up for secure communications between you and Bruce within the next day or so. Give me a call when you are ready." I turned to Bruce as I opened a portal and said "Bruce?"

The infant god gave a frustrated sigh, gave Betty a leg curling kiss goodbye, and then followed me through the portal to the facility I had set up for him on Mars.

He glanced around at the gleaming lab equipment, tens of millions of dollars worth of beyond state of the art machinery, and said, "Where are we?"

I turned to face him. "Your lab, if you take my offer. Physically? A mile below the peak of Albor Tholus on Mars."

"Bullshit. You can't just wave your hand and create a flaming portal to another planet. Even light would take longer to get here than we did," Bruce flatly said.

"Not bullshit, magic. But if you want to be precise, I used a link between my soul and a temporal anomaly to open a pico-scale wormhole back to the very moment of the Big Bang, when every single location in the cosmos was identically located, identified which bits would be this exact location at this exact point in time, anchored another pico wormhole to them, and then used those pico wormholes to locate macro-scale wormholes at both locations. The whole process was powered by the Big Bang, and so took very little energy from me to catalyze," I said as I explained the basic mechanics of how sling rings worked to him.

"If you prefer, you could call it very advanced science as I am, after all, simply exploiting rules of physics that you weren't aware even existed. But magic is the best explanation, given current scientific knowledge on Earth." I continued before he could comment.

Bruce pulled a hand over his face, sighed, and said, "Fine, whatever, magic. I still think you are delusional, but you can do something that I can't explain, and if you want to call it magic, then that's on you."

I gave him a flat look and said, "Bruce, you turn into a ten-foot-tall green rage monster that out masses you by an order of magnitude. Said rage monster has physical capabilities that none of the matter in the surrounding environment when he comes out to play could explain using any known materials science. Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. Just the most famous equation in physics, and one that is fully accurate, so where are you getting enough energy to vaporize a _continent_ with every time you Hulk out? And how are you turning that energy into matter ex nihilo with nothing but your naked body? You are one of the smartest humans to have ever existed, you have seven doctorates in relevant fields, are you really going to sit here and tell me that you have any explanation for the Hulk that is even theoretically viable under your current scientific models?"

Bruce rocked back on his heels before going fully to the floor, leaning against the wall. He quietly said, "No, I don't. I guess I just didn't want to consciously accept it. I was so fixated on fixing this, on curing myself, that I just ignored evidence that I couldn't explain and seemed to destroy any hope _of_ fixing it. I'm not sure whether I should thank you or not for destroying that hope."

I glanced down at him for a long moment before extending a hand. "I can't offer you a cure, Bruce, but I can offer you what you really want: control. I can teach you how to master yourself, how to control yourself, and give you the knowledge and training you need to no longer _fear_ yourself. I can offer you the resources you need to understand the physical realities of your changes. I can offer you the knowledge and skills you will need to understand the metaphysical realities of your new existence. But it's up to you, Bruce; are you willing to hope, or will you flinch away in fear?"

After three long, tense, minutes of me standing there, hand extended, and him doing nothing but stare at it, he took it and let me pull him to his feet.

"Welcome aboard Bruce."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Everyone should get their own Hulk, they make everything better.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	13. Chapter 13

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 13  
-x-x-x-

Having brought Bruce onboard, it was time to start cleaning up loose ends. While he might be willing to overlook the knowledge that I was engaged in somewhat morally ambiguous antics, forcing him to face the more extreme of those antics could be dangerous. And so it was time to start cleaning up and capitalizing on the ground work I had previously laid. It was approaching time for the Pyms to experience a lab accident in their quest to save Janet from the Quantum Realm, but first to get the deception properly in place.

With that thought, I started the meeting. "Everyone, I would like you to introduce you to our newest team member, Dr. Bruce Banner. He is the world's foremost nuclear physicist with five doctorates in that area, in addition to his doctorates in biochemistry and medicine, and is coming to us from his role as lead scientist on the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project - the US government's latest human enhancement project. Given the breadth of his areas of study and noted intelligence, his cell will be primarily focused on a cross disciplinary analysis of all of our other work, with an eye towards practical technologies that fully exploit our entire tech base. He will also be working with you, Maya, on more fully understanding the full ramifications of his own enhancements.

"Bruce, the team. Dr. Maya Hansen, our head of human enhancement research and the Extremis Cell. I'm sure the two of you will get along famously, and that you two have much to teach each other.

"I'm sure that Dr. Hank Pym needs no introduction, but he leads the Pym cell with his daughter, Hope, and her fiance, Dr. Darren Cross. Dr. Pym has discovered and made practical the use of what we call Pym Particles. These allow you to reduce the distance between atoms and shift mass into the Quantum Realm - taking it from a certainty to a probability that can be controllably manipulated." Natasha, in her armor, took the opportunity to shrink to ant-size and then return.

"As demonstrated by Natasha Romanoff, our head of security and primary field operative.

"Next to her we have Dr. Anton Vanko and his son Dr. Ivan Vanko. Anton was a close associate of Howard Stark's before some unpleasantness led to them parting ways, and he returned to Russia. His cell is focused on realizing various projects that the two of them co-developed and theorized about, but could not make practical due to the technology of the day.

"Last, and most definitely least, we have myself. I handle our metaphysical research and our research into vibranium. Be warned, I will be pushing as much of the latter off onto your shoulders as you can stomach," I finished the introductions.

Bruce said, "A pleasure everyone," before turning to Dr. Pym, "and I'm glad to see that reports of your death have been exaggerated Hank. If you don't mind my asking, how did you end up here?"

"Good to see you too, Bruce. I caught your lecture on gamma ray-induced metallic alloys at Harvard back in 2003, but didn't get a chance to speak with you. I had some thoughts, we should talk later. To answer your question though, it seems that HYDRA isn't quite as dead as everyone thought, and they tried to kidnap my daughter to force me to work for them. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have forgotten that I was a SHIELD operative for a decade and don't take threats to my family lightly. Sadly, I'm too old to be dealing with field work personally and so I contracted Natasha here to, _remove_, the offenders.

"She succeeded, of course, but with HYDRA, there are always other cells, and I was just buying time. When I asked her about disappearing, she put me in contact with Octavian here, and we cut a deal." Hank spun the story that Kilgrave forced him to and the same one that everyone but Natasha, Maya, and the Kilgrave team had been told.

Bruce glanced at Natasha. "He contracted you?"

She smiled and gave a slight bow of the head. "Octavian was being polite when he called me a field operative. A secret branch of the KGB took me as a young girl and trained me for years as a spy, infiltrator, and assassin. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the program was slightly modified, but I performed much the same work for the FSB, only to find out that my handler was selling my services to the highest bidder. When management found out they sanctioned us both, I proved myself better than the kill teams sent to carry out my retirement, and so I went independent. Being the world's best assassin paid well, but when Octavian offered me a cause worth serving, I accepted without regret."

Bruce looked shocked before quietly saying, "Oh."

In the end, Bruce fit in quite well, especially after Betty accepted a job with Raith Industries and ended up working under Maya. Those two became fast friends.

It was tragic that a mere eight months after he joined us, we were betrayed by one of our own. It seems that the Vankos were really HYDRA sleeper agents sent to infiltrate my labs, but they had failed to account for our Martian location. But they persevered and thought they had come up with a way to use Pym Particles and the Quantum Realm to teleport back to Earth. The two of them had helped Dr. Pym with one of his experiments to rescue Janet, but when Pym realized the modifications that they had made to the device, and that it would take the whole facility Quantum regardless of whether or not it teleported the Vankos home, he acted expeditiously to limit the damage. It was a tragic loss that Dr. Pym, his daughter, his future son-in-law, and five members of his team went Quantum with the entire lab and both Vanko's.

That Dr. Banner had finished learning about Pym Particles from Dr. Pym and learned a lot from the Vankos was merely fortuitous luck.

And if ten people in stasis tubes happened to show up in a vault on Elara that no one else knew existed, well, that was pure coincidence.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Been planning this for a while, it's not like you can keep the mind controlled scientists around when it is just asking for a rage monster smashing you to pieces.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	14. Chapter 14

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 14  
-x-x-x-

Here we were in September of 2006; after six months of dedicated work on Natasha's part, six months of her flying around as an invisible little fly thanks to Banner finally making my idea for a meta material with a negative index of refraction into reality and thus allowing our suits to be invisible to the naked eye. But finally the stage was set. Elektra had split with the Chaste over Stick's orders. It had happened before and, in the normal course of events, it would happen again, as Elektra would do her own thing for a while, and then come back, only to repeat the process again and again.

But I intended to change that, it was time to gain my second Blade.

'_Hmm, needed to work on a better name for that team before the public debut. Note to self: Ask those cleared for the project for suggestions.'_

With that last irrelevant thought out of the way, I entered what I called "battle meditation," the result of my persistent attempts to teach myself to use Chi. In this state, I was hyper focused, emotions were set aside, and extraneous thoughts kept away.

A hand gesture, and I was the size of an ant and invisible. I went Astral and winced, the Hand clearly had some mystical support as the Yakamoto Tower was warded against Astral travel and the Mirror Dimension. With the easy ways of getting an image for a portal or just walking in without effort blocked, it was time to fall back on science. My wings extended and I flapped my way across to the buildings roof where I slipped into the HVAC system and made my way down to the penthouse, where Nobu Yoshioka currently resided.

I flew around the well-appointed suite, being careful to remain on the ceiling, until I found the Hand leader sitting at his desk and going over papers. I drew my blade, accelerated my time frame ten fold, and was moving to take off his head even as I returned to full size. He diverted my strike, moving every bit as fast and having slapped my wrist slightly to the side, while drawing his own blade with the other.

Without my battle meditation, I would have been stunned. Somehow he diverted my hand despite the fact that my vibranium armor should have absorbed the kinetic energy, but as it was, I simply adjusted to the new information.

Nobu was _good_, far better than me. Maybe even better than Natasha. Fortunately for me, he was at a disadvantage. When he went to directly block my sword with his own, mine sheared straight through and cut his body in half with it. A three-molecule-thick blade made of a carefully sculpted vibranium/adamantium lattice will cut through virtually anything without any resistance. The back-swing separated his head from his body before the two halves had even fully separated.

With my enemy dead, I took his head and put it on the sitting room's coffee table. His body was laid in front of it, and then I took my seat to wait.

Fifteen minutes later, my guest arrived as Elektra walked through the door. She had barely started to process the scene when the door shut behind her, and suddenly she found herself on her knees with a blade at her throat.

"Hello, Elektra, as you can see, your target is dead." I waved a hand at the bloody body parts. "But you've impressed me over the years we have had you under observation. Enough so that the woman holding her blade to your throat decided to sponsor you. Congratulations, the Black Widow doesn't impress easily."

With that last sentence, Natasha released her and walked over to stand beside me. Elektra got back to her feet, but her eyes widened in a combination of surprise, shock, and awe.

"Not interested," she said.

"Oh? You aren't interested with actually destroying the Hand? You aren't interested with having a leadership role in one of the world's most powerful organizations? You aren't interested in being equipped with the most bleeding edge armor and weapons on the planet? You aren't interested in the opportunity to undergo the same process that made Captain America?" I said, laying out some of the benefits of joining.

"The Chaste already have my loyalty," she said, pacing back and forth slightly.

"You mean the Chaste that have been at war with the Hand for centuries without making any real progress? The same Chaste that took you in as a child, trained you, and then threw you out when you proved yourself too good? The same Chaste that keeps calling you back like a master to its abused pup, whenever they have a use for you and yet never lets you advance? The same Chaste that has you seduce another who was so very like you, and then calls you a failure because you allowed love and respect to exist in your heart?" I countered.

She went to hotly respond, but I raised a hand slightly and continued, "Join with us, and you will endure no limits, no hidden tests, no betrayal, and the absolute knowledge that you are helping to preserve and advance humanity. Every one of your fellow members is every bit as driven as you are, and every bit as exceptional in their fields of expertise as you are in yours. You will see and experience things that you never even dreamed possible. The question you need to face is a simple one: 'are you ready to throw off the shackles that bind your will?' Because if you are, then we welcome you with open arms. And if not, then we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, but you would never work out with us."

"Why do I feel like this would be striking a deal with the devil?" the assassin said in nonanswer.

"Because in many ways, it is. If you take my offer, then I will use you to advance my own goals. Just like I expect you to use me to advance your own goals. Every fair relationship is one of give and take, of mutual respect. That is what we offer. Obey the very few rules that we have, and we will always have your back, just like we expect that you will do the same for any other member." I said, again making the assumption that recruiting people with lies was a really bad way to build long lasting loyalty from people who were only really useful if I trusted them at my back with massive amounts of power under their control.

Elektra was silent for a moment before she said, "And what are these rules?"

I stood and said, "Follow me and find out," as I opened a portal to one of my isolated meeting facilities and tossed Nobu's head and body through before walking through. Natasha followed at my side.

The camera on the back of my helmet let me keep track of Elektra without appearing to do so. She was still standing there, immobile, though. I sighed slightly and sent to Natasha over our comms, "Looks like she won't be joining us. Pity."

She sent back, "Give her another few seconds, I think she will surprise you. She really is chafing with the Chaste and doesn't consciously understand why. I told you what buttons to press for a reason, Octavian."

Just as I was about to respond, Elektra proved her read superior to my own and started walking forward.

Once she was through, I cut off the portal and waved at the chairs set off to the side, even as I retracted my helmet and Natasha did the same. "Welcome, Elektra, care for a drink?"

"First, I would like to hear these rules," she said, moving to take a seat.

"Fair enough, but to get introductions out of the way, I am Octavian Raith."

Natasha said, "And I am Natasha Romanoff, or Black Widow in the underworld."

"What, you get bored being a billionaire, Raith? Decide to come play in the dirty underbelly of the world?" Elektra asked.

"Says the woman whose own adopted family is worth hundreds of millions. How's being the heiress to a Greek shipping magnate working for you? But you asked about the rules. Do not attempt to destroy the world. Do not attempt to wipe out humanity. Do not attempt to enslave humanity or otherwise deny it freedom of choice. Do not betray any of the group's secrets to anyone. Do not knowingly act against anyone else in the group. Help other members of the group as and when you are able. Have a problem with any of those?" I asked.

She blinked. "That's all? Three of your rules amount to don't end the world? What made you make something so fundamental a rule?"

"Because those are the entire purpose of our Covenant, Elektra. I formed this organization to ensure the survival and freedom of humanity from all threats, foreign or domestic, and to break every limit on human advancement. So are you in, or are you out? Be warned though, that once you take our oaths, there is no going back. Up until you take the oaths though, you can leave at any time." I sipped the drink that appeared in my hand. God, I loved abusing Pym Particles as the ultimate utility belt.

She poured herself a glass of whisky from the bottle on the table before saying, "I'm in."

I rose, created a portal, and said, "Then let's be about it, indoc awaits."

Once she followed me into the room, I closed the portal and waited a few seconds. "You will take no violent or forceful actions. You will stand still. You will not utter anything that you know to be false. You will answer any question you are asked fully, completely, and in the manner you think it is intended without attempting to dissemble, obfuscate, mislead, or otherwise conceal information that you believe we want. You will say when you believe that we have formed a false or misleading impression of any statement of yours.

"Are you Elektra, one time apprentice of the Chaste member known as Stick, adopted daughter of Hugo Kostas Natchios and Christina Natchios?"

"Yes," was her mechanical response.

"Are you now or have you ever been affiliated with or a member of HYDRA, the Hand, the Ten Rings, SHIELD, or the intelligence agencies of any nation or private group besides the Chaste?"

"Yes, I've operated as a freelance assassin upon occasion for Mossad, MI-6, and the CIA and have purchased the services of several private intelligence companies in the past."

"Are you attempting to join the Covenant under false pretenses or on the behalf of any individual, group, or entity except yourself in your own person and of your own free will?"

"No."

"Would you willingly sacrifice your life to ensure the survival and freedom of humanity?"

"Yes."

"Would you willingly kill without hesitation to ensure the survival and freedom of humanity?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything you would not sacrifice or any action that you would not take if you believed it necessary to ensure the survival and freedom of humanity?"

"No."

"Are you willing to swear binding oaths without mental or moral reservation to obey the rules of the Covenant as you have been told them?"

"Yes."

"Inject yourself in the arm with the syringe on the table," I ordered, and she obeyed mechanically.

Less than a minute later she shook her head and drew her sai knives as she snarled, "What was that?"

"That was the first half of a binary virus that enforces obedience to anyone marked with the other half of the virus that fills the air in this chamber. And the vial I had you inject was the vaccine against that virus. It's good for two weeks. And now that you have passed the final round of indoc screening, it's time for you to read the contract and take your oaths. Unless you are so affronted at our security measures that you want to back out?" I challenged.

She shook her head and put away her knives. "No, I'm in. I'm actually surprised that you weren't more invasive."

A wave of the hand opened a portal to a circular room with a circular table in its exact center and a single cubby vestibule with a vibranium tablet standing within it. I indicated the tablet with a gesture and said, "Feel free to read what you will be swearing to while I gather the others. I'm sure Natasha will be happy to answer any of your questions."

Within ten minutes, I had gathered Bruce, Maya, Betty, and the Ancient One. Once we were all assembled, I said, "Last chance to back out Elektra, because when I say that our oaths are binding, I mean just that. You literally will not be able to break them, and even if you manage that in some way, you will die immediately and painfully."

She barely hesitated before saying, "I'm in."

I glanced around at everyone else and said "Any objections to Elektra becoming Covenant?"

A moment later, I said, "So be it. Bruce, if you would."

He nodded and grimaced slightly before Hulking out. Elektra jumped back, but Natasha laid a hand on her wrist and shook her head, while I drew out my sword and passed it to the Hulk. Betty took the bowl from in front of the tablet and set it on the table. The Hulk sliced his hand and let his blood, glowing green, fall into the bowl, before the cut healed, and he returned to being Banner a moment later.

Natasha drew a knife and passed it to Elektra, saying, "Slice your hand and add your blood to the bowl."

She didn't hesitate but her eyes went very wide when the cut on her hand closed up moments later, a side effect of the Vita Rays that constantly bombarded this chamber.

Betty took the vibranium pen from its place at the base of the tablet and filled its ink well with the mixed blood in the bowl. Once it was done, she passed the pen to Elektra.

"Last chance to back out, but if you are willing to join, then go sign your name to the Covenant," I said, gesturing to the tablet.

The hesitation was gone as she walked over, read through the tablet's words once more, and then signed. The pen sinking into the tablet as if it was a hot knife through wax and leaving green lettering streaked through with red in its wake. When she was done, the tablet was perfectly smooth, except now it contained one more name.

It was done, she was in. I had been working on this with the help of the Ancient One almost since I had found out that Banner was an elder god. The tablet was pure vibranium laced with enchantments and with blood constantly flowing throughout it, and the pen was likewise enchanted vibranium. Both created with the willing assistance of an elder god. The Ancient One, Alkasha as I had found out when she signed her own name, had used the full power of the Eye in its creation as well, making the oath binding from the beginning to the end of time.

With the ceremony out of the way, I said, "Welcome to the Covenant, Elektra."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Yah for magically binding contracts signed with willingly given gods blood shed for the purpose of enforcing the contracts terms. For when you absolutely, positively, don't want to deal with betrayal.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	15. Chapter 15

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 15  
-x-x-x-

Watching Natasha and Elektra "spar" in virtually painted on suits was truly one of life's little pleasures. Given the amount of Vita Rays, Chi, bombarding this room, anything less than an immediately lethal hit was recoverable in short order, and so I got to watch two of the best hand to hand combatants alive fight all out for hours on end.

Natasha had been the more skilled when the two first started sparring, but Elektra had improved rapidly until, now, she seemed just a little bit better. That rapid improvement was actually the real reason that I was in the room now, and they had been beating the shit out of one another for the past eight hours. Exercising while being within a high Chi environment was inherently more effective simply because you tired slower and healed much faster, and the data even supported the hypothesis that learning in a Chi heavy environment was more effective, as the Chi just took what was already present and made it _more_.

Given how good it felt, most of the staff had started training in rooms like this, and so we had gathered quite a lot of data, enough that we could fairly accurately predict the degree of increased performance. Natasha and I were both on the more extreme end, being approximately three standard deviations above the average on a scale modeled off of the IQ scale, but Elektra had blown up the entire curve and was pushing well over five standard deviations off the average. If we were talking IQ, she would be as odd as someone with an IQ of at least 180, otherwise known as so far off the scale that it wasn't really effectively measurable.

So here I was sitting on the Astral Plane and trying to use my mystical senses to figure out just what was going on, my own experiments with Chi had lead to my creation of a spell that made it visible to my eyes, and once I cast it, I was floored.

Around Natasha, the Chi was moving like predicted, flowing into and out of her body at a steady rate with only the slightest bit of the neutral Chi being turned into Natasha's unique chi and remaining within her body. Elektra in contrast was a black hole in that all neutral Chi that came in contact with her went into her body and transformed into her own chi. With how much she had to have absorbed over the past month, she should have blown up, but instead she seemed just fine.

_'I wonder if there was more to that whole Black Sky thing than her just being convenient? She had no Chi training before this, barely even knew that it existed at all, so it can't be that. It seems like Stick is due for an interrogation to find out just where he picked her up from.'_

I kept one eye on the Chi flows while the match continued, but honestly found the spar more interesting. Eventually, it came to a close, and I returned to my body. Once I stood, Elektra turned to me. "Well, did you figure out what's going on with me?"

"The bare bones. For some reason, you are like a blackhole for Chi. Every drop of neutral Chi that came in contact with your own Chi was transformed into more of your own Chi. I don't actually know if you could suffer from a Chi overload, regardless of how much we bombarded you with. I'm not willing to try and find out, but I can tell you that if it did happen, it would be because your lifeforce became too much for your body to handle and not because of the conflict between the neutral Chi and your own Chi inside your body."

"Then why isn't she better than she is?" Natasha asked me before turning to Elektra. "Don't misunderstand me, you are phenomenally skilled, but we know that Chi can take the body to superhuman levels, and with as much Chi as you should have absorbed by now, you should simply be so far beyond me in physical abilities that you win with ease."

Elektra smiled. "Yeah, you might be a better fighter than I am still, but you aren't _that_ much better. Any ideas, Octavian?"

"Nothing beyond spending more time meditating and trying to understand what is happening yourself. I mean, none of us are Chi masters, and pretty much everything we know is self taught and guesswork. We do know that you still heal pretty much any injury in a day or so, even if you remain outside a Chi room, so clearly you have the potential for superhuman abilities, but I guess it might be something that you have to consciously harness. Maybe bodies have a Chi pool where the power sits until you call upon it and send it wherever." I shrugged. "No clue, really. This is all pretty much guesswork on my part."

After hesitating a moment, I continued, "Elektra, how do you feel about Stick?"

"Why?" she asked somewhat sharply.

"Because he is the one who found you wherever and decided to train you, and he is one of the Chaste's leaders. The Iron Fist, K'un-Lun, and the Hand are all tied up with Chi in a major way, and the Chaste probably have at least some ideas about it, given how long they have been fighting the Hand. So when I find out that one of the Chaste's leaders took in a young girl with an unknown past and trained her brutally from day one to be a weapon, and then find out that this girl is responding to Chi in a way _far_ outside the norm, I wonder if this is all really coincidence or if something else is going on. And that makes me think long and hard about kidnapping Stick for a very thorough interrogation to find out just what he knows about all of this, but I'm not going to do something like that without your agreement, and so I ask, how you feel about him?" I explained, thinking about that whole Black Sky deal, dragon bones, and talk of destiny.

Elektra paced back and forth for a while. "I don't know, we'll talk about this later, but right now, I'm going to take a shower before we have to leave for the Black Thorn meeting. But you won't take any action against the Chaste or Stick without my agreement?"

"Of course not, ultimately, this is a curiosity for me. I want to know what is up with you, but unless something drastically changes, this is only about you, and so you have the lead on it. If you decide you want us to drop it, then it's dropped. If you decide that you want to go and kill all of the Chaste because Stick stole your juice box one day when you were eight, then I'll help you do that too. But you're right, we should get ready for the meeting. Let me know whenever you decide one way or the other."

I really didn't care all that much about the street level stuff. I wanted the Hand gone because it's five leaders were immortal chi users with centuries (or more) of experience and were one of the most powerful organizations on the planet, and arguably the most powerful in many respects. They were competition, the Chaste were nothing but a potential resource of some small use.

She gave a nod and left. Natasha glanced after her, looked at me, shrugged, and left to take her own shower. I started going through Tai-Chi katas in the Chi room as I thought through things until it was time for the meeting.

We were all in full armor. Mine was smooth and unrelieved black at the moment, while both Elektra's and Natasha's were almost mirror images of one another. Elekrta's armor was done in blood red with black accents and on her helmet was the symbol she had chosen as her own - two sai knives crossed and imposed on a tablet that seemed to drip green blood, and with a detailed copy of the Earth at its center. Natasha's armor was black with blood red accents in the form of stylized spider legs, and on her helmet she had the same tablet with the earth but a spider had its limbs around it and its head resting on top of it.

"Lose the insignia. No reason to give these people any more information than necessary. Black Thorn for this, not Covenant." With that comment, I made a hand gesture and on my chest, over my heart, appeared the symbol I had chosen for the Circle of the Black Thorn. A circle with thirteen angled spikes coming off of it, the thorns, all done in black with a blood red border around it.

"Theatrics," Natasha said with a sigh as she shifted her own armor, her helmet was again empty of adornment, and over her heart rested the same symbol as on mine except that in the center of the circle was a blood red spider.

Elektra changed hers without comment, hers having two crossed sai knives in the center.

Once we were ready, I created a portal to another chamber. This one was a large, thirteen-sided room with walls of black metal, well-lit but without visible light sources. In the center of each wall was a door and in the center of the room was a thirteen sided table with a throne sitting behind each side. Each had a symbol emblazoned into it. I took my seat at the foot of the table, while Elekrta sat in the one to my left and Natasha the one to my right. Then I concentrated and triggered the enchantments on ten of the thirteen doors, causing each one to open a portal to another location exactly on time.

Four women and six men walked through those portals and looked around even as the portals closed behind them.

"Your seats ladies and gentlemen," I said with a hand wave.

Wilson Fisk: the man who was rapidly taking over crime in New York city and would be known as the Kingpin.

O-Ren Ishii: the most powerful crime lord in Japan not affiliated with the Hand and with a burning hatred for Murakami of the Hand, after she watched him rape and murder her parents at the tender age of nine.

Teresa Mendoza: in three short years, she had gone from kept woman of a cartel courier to the drug queen of the southwestern US - and currently engaged in a brutal war with the Vargas Cartel after she put a bullet in the head of its founder last year.

John Chatham: he ran a small but very professional criminal organization that supplied the needs of Australia's most elite members of society and the Hand-affiliated organizations prevented him from expanding his operations, unless he gained outside backing.

Jax Teller: President of the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club, he had inherited leadership of a criminal enterprise both too large to be overlooked by the big players and too small to effectively fight them and so the survival of those he loved demanded his organization expand until it was secure.

Abraham Shapiro: he was the Don of the Jewish Mafia in Europe and had the rare trait of being one of the only European crime lords not under the thumb of Hydra or the Hand.

Reileen Kawahara: formerly of Hong Kong, she fled to Brazil at the age of twelve after Madam Gao killed her whole clan when her father refused to hand over her elder brother Takeshi as a sacrifice to the Crane Mother like tradition demanded. Fifteen years later she is one of the most powerful purveyors of vice in South America.

Dembe: the right hand of Raymond Reddington for nearly twenty years he has vowed revenge on HYDRA after they killed him and his daughter. While most of Reddington's network went its own way after his death, Dembe managed to secure many of is African operations and is now fighting a two front war against the HYDRA-backed Ten Rings and Sowande of the Hand.

Irina Derevko: a former KGB agent and one of the first successes of the Red Room, she was captured by HYDRA during WW2 and experimented on alongside Bucky Barnes, before ending up back in the hands of the Red Room when the war ended. When one of her missions resulted in her mind being freed from HYDRA's brainwashing, she went rogue and now hates them with a burning passion, even as she has built up a powerful criminal organization in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Jean-Paul Black: a street kid who had clawed his way up the Canadian underworld and now largely ran all of British Columbia.

Once all ten were seated I said, "As you have each shown up, I trust that you have agreed to the terms of our alliance?" I waited until I had received acknowledgements from all ten of them before continuing. "Good, then it is time to formerly inaugurate the Circle of the Black Thorn."

With that, I tapped the table and the technology, and enchantments, hidden in its body activated. Before each of the thirteen spots words seemed to appear cut into the table, and an indentation of a hand print likewise appeared before each spot.

"The terms, as agreed. Put your hand into the indentation if you agree to be bound by them. Oh, it will hurt," I said, before retracting the right glove of my suit and placing my hand on the spot before me. Natasha and Elektra followed moments later with their own spots.

One after the other, with varying degrees of hesitation, each of the others did the same until all thirteen hands were on the table, and then the enchantments went to work. The hands were locked in place as blood flowed out of them, filling in the words before each of us, before then meeting in the center of the table where in created the symbol of the Black Thorn. As it worked, I could feel the burning on my chest as the mystical tattoo bound me to the contract I had signed along with the others. Once it was done, the table released our hands and the words disappeared, leaving only the symbol behind in the center.

I smiled broadly, my face hidden behind my mast. I had just bound the loyalty of ten people who were well-positioned to take over most organized crime the world over, and none of them even realized the truth. They all thought me bound by the terms of our contract just as they were; pity for them that I was the one that had worked the enchantments and the actual contract - as opposed to the one that they had seen visible before their eyes - included a little clause that let anyone of the Covenant ignore its terms as well.

With that out of the way, I tapped the table again, and before each of them appeared a smart phone. "Secure communications and computer hardware, as promised. You can find the full details in the included guide, but each of those phones is more powerful than any supercomputer on the public market, can communicate with one another from anywhere in the world without any detectable emissions, can only be accessed by you, and can be instantly destroyed by you with only a thought.

"With the signing of the contract, the doors I gave you will now also respond to your will. Merely touch the door and desire a portal, and it will open the pathway here. Be warned, however, that anyone but us who passes through those doors will find them nothing but normal doors."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Long chapter, and yes you probably recognize many of those criminals from various other works of fiction. Sadly the MCU really does not have all that many interesting criminals not part of Hydra or the Hand, and virtually all of the criminals regardless of affiliation are centered on NYC. Given that I am lazy and don't feel like doing all the work involved in creating original characters, I stole some. Don't expect any of them to exactly match their relevant source material (well except for Kingpin) but if you know the source material you should have a fairly accurate idea of at least their broad strokes and basic personality/back story.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	16. Chapter 16

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 16  
-x-x-x-

As the meeting broke up, and the ten crime bosses made their way back to their respective homes via portal, I looked at the innocuous little pill in my hand that had ultimately made this operation possible. While we had the ability to provide synthetic variants of virtually every street drug and could decimate many of the established supplies, the plan had kept being put off as we faced the simple truth that the Hand and HYDRA between them owned the drug trade, and both organizations had motives beyond profit as well as their own enhanced resources to call upon if necessary.

Cutting those organizations out of the criminal underworld meant breaking their connections to the street level operations that actually pushed the product, and there was no real way to get them to buy our product on a large scale. So long as our drugs were only the equal of the Hand's or HYDRA's, then the street-level gangs wouldn't much care, and the people who supplied them knew enough to be very afraid of their bosses. They weren't going to switch suppliers without a good reason. This little pill was that reason.

Bruce had managed to develop a crystalline substance that was safe for human consumption, water-soluble, and could not just absorb but store within its structure the neutral Chi that science called Vita Radiation. Each pill could absorb only a minuscule amount of Chi, but it was still pure life energy and consuming one gave a hell of a natural high while relieving all those minor aches and pains, curing headaches and the common cold, and providing an energy boost comparable to chugging a couple of Red Bulls. All with no short or long term negative consequences, unless you massively overdosed on the pills and went boom from Chi overload.

Bruce had developed them as a safer and more controllable alternative to hanging out in the Chi rooms for our rank and file staff, but after testing, had talked about Raith Industries marketing them. Honestly, I wished that we could, but trying to get FDA approval for our magic life pills would take years, at best, and that was even with a willingness to use less than legal methods to encourage approval.

_"Bruce, I agree with you that the Chi Pills should be on the market. They would outright eliminate a lot of the more common sicknesses that people get. Take a Chi Pill with every meal, and you are probably going to be virtually immune to viral and bacterial infections, in addition to a much reduced risk of cancer, generally better physical fitness, and a twenty five percent increase in projected life span._

_"Hell, the profit motive alone would have me willing to push these things on the general public. even if nothing else would. These things will totally eliminate coffee for starters, and the health benefits mean that you could easily convince insurance companies to pay for them as preventative medicine. One every meal, three per day, at one dollar a pill. Say three hundred million users in the US, that is almost a billion dollars a day in pure profit._

_"And that's also why these are not going to get approved for public sale any time soon, if ever. Have you seen the numbers for how much of the economy that little pill would replace?" I had said after he wondered why I seemed less than inclined to take them to market._

_He winced at my question. "Three trillion a year in GDP, in the US alone, if we went with a dollar-per-pill profit margin."_

_I nodded. "And that is millions of jobs in the US alone. If you go worldwide, you are looking at at least a hundred million jobs pretty much eliminated. Frankly, I would still do it if I could get it approved for legal sale. Hell, I could try selling it as candy, and I have thought about doing just that. The thing is, I don't think it will work. Too many people and too much money are going to do everything in their power to keep this out of the hands of the public, simply because it will destroy them if it is available. What's your take on the actual net economic benefit of the Chi Pill's being publicly available?"_

_Bruce thought for a moment, performing calculations in his head that would take entire teams of economists with computer support days. "Net of three trillion to the US GDP, worldwide it would see GDP double within ten years. It will also save, conservatively, a million lives per year."_

_I nodded. "About what I thought, and my chances of getting it onto the legal market?"_

_He sighed. "Virtually nonexistent. It's just that it will help so many people, I thought this is the kind of thing the Covenant was all about doing."_

_I nodded. "It is, and that's why I'm strongly inclined to make it public anyway."_

_"How? It's likely to see Raith Industries destroyed. Our enemies will declare all out war on us over this, it will be a bloodbath at best." Bruce said._

_"I'm aware, and that is why it's not going to be on the legal market. I've been contemplating ways of breaking the power of the Hand and HYDRA, and one of the key pillars of that power is their influence in the criminal underworld, influence largely built upon the drug trade. I've thought about taking over that trade before, even drew up plans for it and did much of the preparatory work over the past few years, but kept running into the simple fact that it couldn't work out unless we had an edge as far as the end users and dealers were concerned," I said, looking Bruce square in the eye. "I think your Chi Pills could be that edge."_

_"You want us to become drug dealers?!" Bruce said in astonishment._

_I looked at him flatly. "Bruce, we are guilty of murder, kidnapping, terrorism, espionage, every white collar crime under the sun, and for that matter pretty much every other criminal act you care to name. Yes, we have done most of it for good reasons, but that doesn't change the fact that our organization would be labeled a criminal one if anyone ever learned about it. So what's a little drug dealing in comparison to all the rest?"_

_"That might be true, Octavian, but it's still different," Bruce said, and by the look on his face, he wasn't actually all that convinced of his own claim._

_I shook my head. "Not really. We do what we do because we have decided it is a net positive. Well, what do you think the net positive would be if we replaced just Meth with Chi Pills on the market? Or how about the net benefit of all of those people on the bottom of society, the ones with the least access to decent medical care, when they have cheap access to a panacea like your pill? And remember, we have a monopoly on this pill, and it will be worth at least hundreds of billions per year in profit. What rules do you think that the various criminal organizations are going to be willing to abide by, if that is the price of access? What do you think about the gangs enforcing a no-rape rule?"_

_"What makes you think you can get the criminals to go along with this? As you said, our enemies already dominate that world, and they have every incentive to keep it off the market," Bruce asked._

_"Money, Bruce. Yeah, HYDRA and the Hand dominate crime, but there are still a number of independents. Many with personal reasons to be opposed to one or the other. They generally aren't huge players at the moment, but Natasha has already assembled a list of people she thinks have the skill and temperament to rise if we back them. So we supply them with Chi Pills, and the various other drugs I suppose. At the same time, Elektra and Natasha start actively interfering with our people's competition. They will be the only connections to the street for Chi Pills, so the street dealers will switch to them once they see demand, which will neatly undercut the power base of the enemy supported organizations. Sure, some of ours will end up assassinated but we will always be able to find replacements - the money and power will just be too good."_

_He nodded. "I assume you'll enforce their loyalty with magic?"_

_"Of course, it's not like they are exactly trustworthy. So do you have an issue with me doing this?"_

_Bruce sighed, thought for a long moment. "No, it will be a net good. Now I just need to explain to Betty how I've found myself the world's premier illegal drug chemist. She's so going to laugh, I got pissed at her for manufacturing and selling LSD back in college when she wanted some extra cash."_

Done reminiscing I stood and said to Elektra and Natasha, "Let's get killing, we have some drug dealers to help," before opening a portal to Mexico. The Vargas Cartel was going to suffer a very large number of deaths within the next day.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Bruce gets to be Walter White, he should be so proud. And yes, we are going to be selling Life pills even with the expected consequences. There is a reason that comic books tend to go with Status Quo is god, they really don't want to show what happens if Tony Stark does something like eliminate the entire need for fossil fuels or Reed Richards eliminates disease. In time it will end up a net positive but the immediate effect is going to be massive economic disruption.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	17. Chapter 17

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 17  
-x-x-x-

_New Years Eve Party, January First 2007  
Mars Base_

The whole team was partying, even Alkasha had put in an appearance, and I was watching Betty's slightly tipsy antics.

I broke out laughing when she shouted out, "Oh, grow some balls Bruce! You don't try to talk your wife _out of_ a threesome with someone as fine as Natasha here," before leaning over, grabbing Natasha, and giving her a full on lip-lock. Bruce snarled when most of the crowd started shouting their agreement with his wife of two weeks, picked up each of the women in an arm, swung them over his shoulder, and headed towards his room.

As he passed, I lifted my glass in salute, and Elektra chuckled, "I'm not sure why he always puts up a fight."

"Because those socially-imprinted morals tell him that you aren't supposed to fuck others when you are in a relationship, so he puts up a token protest but his being a man ensures that it is only a token protest. Why do you think he always gives in when Betty brings Natasha, you, or any of the rest of her harem to his bed?" I answered.

She smiled. "I don't love him, but the man fucks like a god, and you know how horny high Chi can make you."

"Well, he is one. It's why I don't feel too put out when I come in second best. I still can't believe that Natasha put a best fuck list up in the cafeteria." I chuckled to myself as I thought back to the day almost two years ago that she slapped it up on the wall bold as brass. Or how she started tearing down in excruciating detail all of the many ways in which individuals were lacking when they argued about their position.

Changing the subject, I said, "So any New Years Resolutions, Elektra?"

She lost her smile and finished her drink in one long gulp. "Yeah, I want to find out where I came from."

I stilled for a moment. "Kidnapping Stick for interrogation?"

"Yes, although we have to track him down first," she answered without inflection.

"You know once we pick him up we are going to have to put him on ice, can't let him know about Kilgrave, and I won't approve him for Covenant clearance." I wanted to be sure she had fully thought this through. The best way to lose loyalty was to push people into doing things they would regret.

"I'm aware that it will be a one way trip for him. At minimum, he will be in stasis for years. And that's assuming I don't just kill him."

"Fine with me, we can start tomorrow. I think I'm about done with this party though, care to join me?" I offered as I finished my drink and cocked an eyebrow.

She set her own glass down, looked me up and down. "I suppose I can settle for second best."

I put a hand over my heart and theatrically stumbled backwards. "Oh my ego, it bleeds." I joked even as I opened a portal to my own quarters.

_The next night_

Natasha, Elektra, and I had spent the last ten hours jumping from Chaste safehouse to Chaste safehouse around the world, as we tried to track down its elusive leader. We had eventually found him though, here in Egypt, as he was planning a hit on an underboss of Sowande's. Now we were waiting for him to complete his mission and bring the captured underboss in for interrogation.

Elektra and Natasha were at the safehouse while I followed Stick from inside the Mirror Dimension, safe from virtually all detection and ready to intervene if it looked like Stick was going to bite the dust. The man was _good_ with his blade, flat out the best swordsmen I had ever seen, but he was even better with the pistols he was carrying. Even his blindness he made an asset, as he threw blinding smoke grenades everywhere, and it looked like the smoke was laced with some variant of hallucinogenic gas he was immune to, if the Hand forces attacking one another was anything to go by.

Seven minutes and twenty four seconds after he entered the building, he walked back out, the unconscious Hand under-boss - now lacking both hands - over one shoulder, and thirty corpses in the currently burning building behind him. He got into the SUV that was waiting to take him back to the safe house, and I followed.

Once he had the prisoner secured safely in a cell, I opened a portal directly under Stick's feet and dropped him into a cell on Mars that was already full of a very fast acting paralytic that Betty had developed as an outgrowth on Kilgrave. The Hand prisoner met the same fate moments later, even as I was signaling Natasha and Elektra that it was time to go hot.

Natasha started at one entrance, Elektra at the other, and I started from the middle. I accelerated my time frame ten fold and drew my pistol. When I found a Chaste member, I opened a small portal behind their head and fired before moving onto the next one. It was a slaughter, they would have had no chance against any one of us alone, much less all of us together.

While Natasha and I policed the bodies and looked for anything else of interest to loot, Elektra drained the computers dry, and then we returned to Mars.

Hopefully the Hand would assume that the Chaste hit them, and the Chaste would assume that the Hand struck back in retaliation for the attack, and that neither would realize that a third player was in the game. Regardless, we had what we came for.

And now here we were, Stick quite thoroughly stuck in a Vibranium interrogation chair that could hold even the Hulk and dosed up with Kilgrave, even as the fMRI pointed at his brain stood ready to ensure he wasn't beating the virus somehow.

"You will make no attempt to kill yourself or render yourself deaf or mute. You will not attempt to end the mind control you are under. You will answer any question you are asked truthfully and completely without any attempt to mislead, obfuscate, or conceal. You will answer all questions in a normal human speaking tone. You will make no attempt to deliberately enrage anyone present. Do you understand these orders?"

"Yes."

"Who are Elektra's birth parents?"

"Her father is Murakami, her mother is Alexandra Reid," he answered.

Elektra hissed over our comm-link, but I ignored it and continued.

"Two of the five Fingers of the hand?" I asked, wanting to be positive.

"Yes."

"How did she come into your care?"

"I raided the Hand medical facility where she was being cared for."

"How old was she at that time?"

"Two weeks old."

"Did you attack the medical facility specifically to kidnap her?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because she was a potential Black Sky."

"What is "a potential Black Sky"?"

"Anyone born to two parents who have imbibed the Hand's Resurrection Substance."

"What makes a "potential" Black Sky into a realized Black Sky?"

"If a potential dies and is then returned to life by the Substance."

"What makes a Black Sky special?"

"A potential Black Sky has Chi potential comparable to that of the Iron Fist and, subconsciously, all of the knowledge of both parents as of the time of conception in the case of the father and birth in the case of the mother. When the potential dies and is brought back through the use of a special variant of the Substance, their memories are also pushed into their subconscious, and no conscious mind exists. The Black Sky is then trained to call upon the collected skills in their subconscious and indoctrinated to be fanatically loyal to the Hand."

"When does the Hand choose to create a Black Sky?"

"Whenever the Fingers decide that they face a threat to the survival of the Hand as a whole. Usually this is when an Iron Fist is being particularly effective, or the Hand is about to undertake some particularly risky venture."

"Are there any limitations on the Hand's ability to create a Black Sky?"

"An individual can only parent one Black Sky per life, and once they contribute to the Black Sky, both parents lose the benefits of the Substance."

"Do you know why Elektra was conceived?"

"No."

"What were your plans for Elektra?"

"To turn her into a weapon against the Hand."

"Do you love her?"

"No, she is simply a tool in the war against the Hand."

Elektra clenched her hands and started to move towards the chair, but Natasha put a hand on her arm, shook her head, and led her out of the room, even as I continued the interrogation.

"Do you know how to consciously use Chi?"

"Yes."

"What are your plans for Matt Murdock?"

"To turn him into the next Stick."

"What is the Stick?"

"The Stick is the individual who is playing host to the spirit of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the founder of the Chaste. He is the leader of the Chaste."

"What are the benefits of the Stick transferring hosts?"

"The defeat of old age, the permanent increase in Chi from the new host being combined with the Chi of all previous hosts, the knowledge of the host is added to the Stick."

"How is the spirit transferred?"

"The potential host drinks a substance made from the blood of the current host infused with Chi in certain patterns. From then on, the Stick can always locate the potential host, and upon the death of the current host, the Stick is transferred to the potential host."

"How many potential Stick hosts can exist at one time?"

"One."

"Who is the current potential Stick host?"

"Matthew Murdock."

I sighed, needing time to think.

After almost five minutes spent processing everything I had just learned and the potential ramifications, I opened a portal to Bruce's lab, stuck my head through, and said, "Hey, Bruce, I need you to prep a stasis chamber and then prepare Stick for cryo freeze. Be extremely careful though, he absolutely can not be allowed to die."

"What's this about, Octavian?" he asked as he turned to face me.

"Not now, Bruce, I'll be calling a full meeting about this later today. But for now, we just need this guy on ice. He is way too risky to keep conscious, and killing him will cause a lot of problems." I did not want to get into everything I just learned about Stick now.

"Fine, I'll get things prepared."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Now let's hope I can finish this before the next season of Daredevil drops so that I can maintain my position that I'm not directly contradicting established canon. And yes Stick is fuck you dangerous if you don't take him by pretty much complete surprise (or aren't equally skilled and powerful like the Hand leaders are), and killing him only causes him to fuck you more.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	18. Chapter 18

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 18  
-x-x-x-

Once Stick was safely locked away in cold storage, I went to find Elektra. I found her in the gym, smashing up the place, as she ranted and raged. "I want nothing more to kill that fucking bastard, and he denies me even that. All my life a fucking lie! Conceived to be a mindless tool, kidnapped and trained to be a weapon for someone else. FUCK!"

"Oh boo hoo, at least you got superpowers out of the deal," Natasha snapped out. Elektra wheeled on her and attacked. The spar was brutal, but Natasha kept talking.

"I was taken from my parents at six, just old enough that I remember their love for me, and forced into the Red Room." Natasha dodged a punch, swept Elektra's legs out from under her, and moved to smash her leg down on Elektra's throat, only for Elektra to grab her ankle and toss her at the wall. Natasha spun in the air to hit the wall feet first and pushed back off, flying towards Elektra, fist extended even as she continued.

"You think your training with Stick was bad? I killed my first man at the age of seven and was raped for the first time at the age of eight. The other children and I trained together, lived together, ate together, slept together, and every year, we were thrown into a pit for a free for all that wouldn't end until half of us were dead. A thousand of us became twelve by the time I graduated at 16. I was the best they had ever produced, and I had earned it with the blood of people I called brother and sister." She tossed Elektra against a punching bag and then dodged as Elektra snapped the chain and threw it back so fast it blurred.

Natasha dodged and continued her rant. "And what was my graduation gift? Those bastards removed all of my eggs so that they could implant them in others, after artificially inseminating them with the sperm of the most exceptional males. They made me sterile and turned my potential offspring into nothing more than fodder for their abomination of a weapons program. After that I spent years as _Mother Russia's,"_ she spat as she said the name, "best infiltrator and assassin, and because of the indoctrination I had undergone I was _happy_ to be used like I was. It was only when the KGB kill teams were sent to kill me because my handler had gone rogue and was selling my services, both lethal and sexual, on the open market that I managed to break my indoctrination."

Natasha managed to force Elektra into a submission hold where the stronger woman had no leverage to use to escape and said right in her ear, "So yeah, you had it bad. Your biological parents are immortal evil bastards of the highest order who had you solely for the purpose of making you a weapon, and yeah, you are going to kill them both one day. Your adopted dad kidnapped you and raised you as his own weapon before seeming to abandon you, and now you find out that he plans to body-jack the man you love, who has serious issues with your willingness to kill. Yeah, you got some kickass superpowers out of the deal, and no, they don't even begin to make up for the shit you went through. But whenever you are about to lose it and think you had it bad, remember that it could always have been worse. At least you weren't pimped out to a Chechen brothel at 17 to be gang raped."

With that last word, Natasha tossed Elektra away and walked out of the room, glancing at me as she passed but saying nothing.

_'Worse than I thought, much worse. I'm going to have to talk to her about her past; that's not going to be fun. On the plus side, she is a lot closer to Elekrta than I thought, if she is opening up like that.'_

Looking at Elektra just lying on the floor where she landed and silently crying, I moved slowly towards her, sat down, and pulled her into a hug.

I just held her for a while, providing simple human contact. "You will get through this, Elektra. You are too strong to allow anyone or anything to break you. I'm here for you, Natasha is here for you, Bruce and Betty are here for you, even Alkasha will support you. Yeah, the Hand are bastards, but we already knew that, and so what if two of them were your biological donors? You are your own person, not them. Yeah, Stick is a bastard, but you already knew that, or you wouldn't have authorized our grabbing him for interrogation. Granted, he is a bigger bastard than any of us were expecting, but it still doesn't change who you are. So are you going to let the Hand win? Are you going to become the weapon you were conceived to be?"

She was quiet for a long time. "No." It was soft but the conviction in that single soft word was as strong as adamantium.

"Are you going to be Stick's little attack dog?"

"No." This time louder and more vehement.

"Are you going to allow him to take the man you love away from you?"

"No." This time filled with absolute certainty.

"So what are you going to do to the Hand?"

"Destroy them root and branch so thoroughly that they will never return!" Her voice firm with implacable hatred.

"And your biological progenitors?"

"Let them live just long enough to realize who is killing them and why." Vengeance on her tongue.

"And Stick?"

"Figure out how to break his link to Matthew and then torture him until he screams for death, only granting it when his screams cease to entertain me." Her voice filled with all the pure hatred that she could muster, so much so that her eyes went black as night, and I could literally see the chi flowing through her with the naked eye.

I nodded. "Good, please let me help. I have my own anger to work out, no one hurts those I call friend and escapes my wrath. Ready to stand up and start figuring out how to complete those vows?"

She nodded her head decisively and stood. "Yes."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Sex bots, right. And no, I'm not sure about the title. Might be a bit too darkly, dickishly, sarcastic even for me.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	19. Chapter 19

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 19  
-x-x-x-

After leaving Elektra, I scheduled a meeting to discuss the revelations about her past and Stick with the full group for the next day, and then headed to Natasha's quarters.

When I pressed the admittance key, I was mildly surprised that the door popped open; usually she had it set to require her permission. I stepped into the open door frame and knocked quietly on the wall next to it as I looked at Natasha curled up on her couch with a book of Russian poetry in her hands and a glass of vodka on the table next to her.

I looked at her questioningly, and she indicated the couch next to her with one hand. "Came to talk about my past?"

As I sat, I shook my head in the negative. "No, but I am willing to listen if you want to talk."

She snorted slightly. "I'm Russian, we're a stoic people. Besides, what is there to say. My past is horrific, but I survived, and those who made me suffer that life are burning in the most depraved of Hells, courtesy of my own hands. I am what I am, and there was nothing I could do about my situation. To allow it to continue affecting me is to allow them to win. To allow it to beat me, and those are things that I will not allow."

"So very strong." I murmured in awe before saying, louder, "I knew your past was bad, and guessed that it was worse than I knew, but I didn't even begin to guess just how bad it was. I am surprised that you told Elektra though."

"Why? She needed help and convincing her that someone could have it worse and still come through intact was something that I could do. We swore an oath to help one another as and when we were able. I take my oaths seriously, and I could help, so I did. It's not a story that I like to spread around, it brings back bad memories, but I'm not ashamed of it either. Crimes were done to me through no fault of my own. I survived and avenged the wrongs done to me." She was quiet, if clearly sincere.

"Which all may be true, but I still feel bad about it. You suffered a fate I wouldn't wish on any child, escaped that fate, only to continue living the life they forced you into. And then I came along and continued using you in the same way." I tried to articulate my own feelings for both her and my benefit.

She shook her head vehemently. "No, Octavian. You were not like them. From the very beginning, you treated me like a partner, not a tool. You trusted me with your plans when you had no way to ensure my loyalty, and while I may have fulfilled your requests, you never once actually _ordered_ me to do anything. Even in the very beginning, you did nothing but offer me jobs, and let me take them or not as _I_ chose. And then you gave me a cause that I can feel good about. I have a lot of red in my ledger, Octavian. I've done things after I went independent that were evil in a way few things match. Did I ever tell you what my last job was before you hired me?"

I thought back over our previous conversations. "No, I don't think so."

"I blew up a kindergarten, Octavian. Two hundred and seventeen kids. And all for nothing but a paycheck that I didn't even actually need. You want to know what I regret? It's not my childhood, it's not any of the jobs I did when indoctrinated, it's not any of the work I've done with you. No, it's that I took that job instead of killing every last one of the motherless goat fuckers when they told me the assignment. So here, with you, with what we are doing, I feel like I just might be able to do enough good to at least balance the scales. I'll never be able to wipe away the red, but at least I might be able to dilute it. And you gave me that opportunity, one that I never expected to receive, Octavian. So don't ever think you were like those abominations from my past."

She looked more vulnerable than I had ever seen her before, and it was plain on her face that she expected me to recoil in horror.

Instead I reached over and pulled her into a hug. "Natasha, I'm going to let a city burn simply to temper a handful of people and for a _PR _gain. The crimes I have and will commit, both by action and inaction, have and will leave my ledger running red with the blood of innocents. Do I do it for money? No, but the motive doesn't matter in the final analysis. Those innocents will still be dead, their families will still loose their loved ones, lives will be destroyed. I could try and rationalize those actions, say that they are necessary sacrifices for the greater good, and they would still be true. But in the end, rationalization is the pathway to self delusion and regret. Those people have and will die because I have chosen, of my own free will, to kill them or allow them to be killed. I might end up being wrong. There might be some information that comes to light in the future that would have allowed a less bloody path.

"And that doesn't matter. I made the choices that I did because I judged them the correct choices with the information that I had at the time. You don't feel regret that you killed those kids. You were and are too strong to allow anyone to force you into anything you don't choose to do. What you are calling regret is your unwillingness to face your own choice and own it. For good or ill, you chose to commit that act for reasons that you considered valid at the time. You have obviously learned more about yourself because of it and have found a path that is more true to yourself.

"Does that excuse what you did? No, but you need no excuses and the only absolution that truly matters is that which you grant yourself. In the final analysis, will the good you do outweigh the evil you do? That's for whomever does the judging to decide, and he, she, it, them, they, or whatever is far beyond our power to understand, predict, or know. Worrying about how we will be judged by some theoretical entity at some theoretical future date is not just pointless, but actively harmful."

Natasha looked me square in the eyes for a long moment, searching for something. "You really do believe that. I expected you to pull back, or perhaps to offer platitudes. But no, you gave me honesty. I'm not sure if I exactly agree with your position, but it does give me something to think about."

I shrugged slightly. "You deserve nothing less. My advice to you, though, is to sit down and really think about your own moral code. What are your lines? What will you do for what return? Don't listen to some religious texts or the words of anyone else, just you sitting alone in your room thinking about who and what you are. Who is Natalia Alianovna Romanoff?" She jumped slightly at my use of her full birth name, obviously having thought I was ignorant of it. "And once you have your code, once you _know_ who you are, be true to yourself always, and you will never have cause to regret. For if you regret an action, it means that you failed to know yourself completely."

She stared at me in stunned surprise. "That's how you live?"

"Since I was a child and I first read the Bible. Decided that it was so full of holes and delusions that the only way I would follow it was if God himself came down and told me to follow it under penalty of eternity in hell. I quickly decided that all of the rest of the supposed moral and ethical teachings were just as much trash for, ultimately, they were all created by humans, and thus had no more inherent legitimacy than my own opinion. So I sat down and derived a personal moral and ethical code from first principles, and then I have lived by it."

She cocked her head. "And you've never had cause to regret since?"

"Only once, and even then, I know that it is irrational," I said very quietly.

"What was it?" she asked, equally quietly.

"Taking you to my bed. I knew enough of your past that I should have guessed, and then I used you just like men have been using you since you were a child."

She shook her head and slapped me on the arm. "No, you took me nowhere. I could have killed you without any effort then, and I was a more than willing participant. You didn't _order_ me to your bed, and all we did was fuck. It was nothing but pleasure and relaxation for the both of us. The Red Room was wrong about virtually everything, but they were right in one thing they taught me: the body is the body, and the mind is the mind. What happens to one only effects the other if you _choose_ to allow it. We fucked, just like I have fucked every remotely decent guy in this entire base at one time or another, just like I have fucked some of the most evil bastards around. At best, it was nothing more than momentary pleasure and relaxation. At worst, it was merely an unpleasant but necessary part of achieving an objective. In any event, it had no meaning because I chose to ascribe no meaning to it, and so there is nothing to regret."

I smiled slightly and sighed. "Very similar to my own opinion, and I suppose that if you don't have any issue with it, then my regret really is pointless."

She leaned over and kissed me before whispering in my ear. "Good, now take me to bed and make love to me."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Somewhat less dark, but still dark. And actual romance for those who want it. Back to the stories more normal bread and butter next chapter.

Betad/Edited by: Hmmaster


	20. Chapter 20

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 20  
-x-x-x-

"...and so that's the story." I finished, having explained to the rest of the Covenant what we had learned about Elektra, Stick, and the Hand over the past twenty four hours.

There was suddenly a Hulk in the room and he roared in rage at the ceiling. Thankfully the Chi bombarding the room was quickly seeing our hearing repaired even as Betty laid a hand on his arm and said "It's ok Bruce, you'll get to play with those who harmed your friend in time but right now it's time to find those enemies and you know you do better at that when you are in your other form."

The Hulk visibly stilled and after a long moment shrunk back into his Bruce form, where he gritted out "Please tell me you don't have any other unpleasant news, because if so I really shouldn't be here right now."

"No, at least not to my knowledge." I answered with a headshake.

Maya was the next to responded with the simple, if eloquent, "Fuck." headshake "Just Fuck. And I thought my dad leaving my mom was a shitty childhood. We are going to make all of these bastards fry, right?"

"Yes, we are." I said emphatically.

Alkasha spoke up next "It appears I haven't been paying anywhere near enough attention to the Chi users over the past millennia, pity. If I had known five hundred years ago then I would have just brought the fire and brimstone before forcing all their souls into a hell dimension. Unfortunately doing something that public in this day and age isn't something I can justify right now, at least not until the age of gods has actually returned. What I can do is ensure that Stick won't be able to die."

Elektra spoke up then, a gleefully malicious note in her voice, "When you say that he won't be able to die, is that an absolute or do you just mean that he won't be able to kill himself?"

Alkasha had a truly _nasty_ smile on her face "An absolute, I'll tie a little localized physical time reversion spell into a health detection ward and anchor it all onto him. The ward will detect the instant he is about to die and reverse time on his body back to when he was last healthy. He won't be able to die until I release it or I die."

We all looked at one another and shared a look that spoke volumes about how unpleasant Sticks life was about to become.

"That would be, grand, Alkasha but we still need a solution to the problem of Matt being his potential host. And a better understanding of what, if any, risks face Elektra because of being this potential Black Sky. Anyone have suggestions for either?" I said, glancing around.

"Would I be right in assuming that magic can't solve this? At least not any that we can safely use?" Bruce asked, looking at Alkasha and I.

She answered for the both of us, "You would. The solutions that I could, theoretically, provide carry risks and downsides that are only justifiable in the pursuit of our primary objectives."

Bruce only nodded, obviously having expected the answer, "Then the solution seems simple to me. We know that Elektra has the memories of two of the worlds oldest and most knowledgeable Chi users buried in her subconscious, we know that Stick can literally transfer his entire mind and soul from body to body. I would be very surprised if he doesn't know some relatively safe way for Elektra to consciously access those subconscious memories. Once that is done she would be best positioned to find a solution. We would also gain an invaluable insight into the Hand, Chi, and even general world history. Not to mention that if Elektra can fully harness her Chi then her threat level will skyrocket."

The rest of us looked at one another to see if anyone saw a flaw in his plan. No one did. _'it's nice to have a super genius around for planning. so much time saved.'  
_  
"Any objections?" I asked before looking around once more, receiving only negative head shakes. "Well then lets be about it, I want my turn on Stick torture and that can't happen until we have the knowledge extracted. Too much chance that he eventually finds a way to use his chi to get around Killgrave even with orders not to."

Unhelpfully for us, and unfortunately for Stick, he said it was just a matter of deep meditation and sinking into your own mind. On the plus side both Alkasha and I knew how to do just that from learning magic, it being one of the steps to learning how to enter the Astral Plane, and so torture time could start sooner.

Bruce must really have been pissed because once we indicated that we had what we needed he went big and green in a split second and ripped Stick in half. Then when he reformed, took his limbs off one at a time. And for the next two hours treated Stick like his own personal punching bag before finally crushing him into a pulp with one hand and saying "Hulk done for now. You turn?" as he dropped Stick at Betty's feet.

After Torture Time(TM) was done for the day, and Stick was back on ice, I could be found sitting cross legged in the Chi Room with Elektra.

"I assume that you know how to meditate?" I asked, figuring that she had to have been taught at some point in her training.

"Yes, but I thought there was more to it than that?" she asked/answered.

"There is, but do you want to do it the fast way or the slow way?" I shot back.

She rolled her eyes "The fast way obviously, but since you are making it a question I assume that the fast way comes with some kind of catch."

"Yeah, it does. The slow way is me explaining the steps to you and you then spending probably weeks to months working on it day in, day out." I started, but she interrupted before I could continue.

"That's what I expected, what's the fast way Octavian?"

"The fast way is that I possess your body and enter the kind of trance you need while inside your body. Normally you could keep me out, or at least keep our minds separate, given your extreme chi levels but that defeats the purpose of doing this. The upside is that you will know exactly what to do and what it feels like, and with your chi you will probably be able to get it done within a week or so. The downside is that I will be inside your mind and you will have little, if any, privacy." I explained.

"And why can't I just shield my memories then?" Elektra shot back.

"Do you know how to use your Chi to shield your memories?" I challenged , and when she winced I continued "Not that it would matter even if you did know. The whole point would be to show your mind how to do this and that requires me being in your mind. I would be shielding my consciousness both because I can and because it will give you a much clearer process of what I am doing in _your_ mind but the reverse is impossible. And given that a trance like this is inherently one that reaches into the deepest, darkest, recesses of your mind you really aren't going to have any secrets from me. Or Alkasha, she would also be willing to do it the fast way. That's actually how I learned, too impatient for the slow way."

"What!? _**You**_ let someone peruse all your memories?" she exclaimed in stunned surprise.

I shrugged and said "Elektra, she is the Sorcerer Supreme and the master of the Time Stone. I know it's been explained to you but you still just don't _get_ it. Her working with us is her humoring us, she only joined our Covenant because I had the sheer brass balls to presume to _ask_ her to. You're strong, Bruce is incredibly strong. But compared to her you are both equally ant like. If you went and listed every entity in all of existence from most to least powerful she would be one of the top 10. Time is, entirely, her bitch and she can look both backwards and forwards in it with very few limits. Before she ever agreed to teach me, literally the instant I was born in fact, she already knew my entire life story with an extremely high degree of fidelity. Your past? She knew it before she ever met you. She pretends to experience time like the rest of us but that is mostly out of politeness and to prevent paradoxes.

"So yeah, I kept no secrets from her because keeping secrets from her was already effectively impossible and nothing that I will ever manage to do will make me even the slightest threat to her. Or to be more precise, she will be dead and her soul in all probability destroyed before I ever manage to become the slightest threat to her."

Elektra said, very quietly, "Oh. In that case then, I think I would prefer her. It's not that I don't trust you but if I'm going to be that exposed to anyone it may as well be to the god that is so far beyond me that being exposed is meaningless. And no offense, but she is a women who I haven't slept with."

I smiled, "Fully understandable."

Alkasha appeared, with perfect timing as always, and said "Agreed."

-x-x-x-  
A/N

Stick is not having a good day. And yes, mastery of an infinity stone puts you at the very top of the heap. Consider Strange with barely any experience using the Time Stone was able to stalemate Dormammu until he chose to release him.


	21. Chapter 21

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 21  
-x-x-x-

In the two months since Alkasha had shown Elektra how to access her subconscious the assassin had improved by leaps and bounds in more than just her ability to use Chi.

Her first spar with Natasha after she had figured out how to enter a meditative state where she was both aware of the real world and deeply connected to her subconscious had to be seen to be believed. The two of them had always been poetry in motion when they fought and both had mastered unarmed combat to what I had considered the absolute pinnacle of possibility but as they fought that time I became aware of just how much further you could go.

Elektra was steadily and visible getting better with every punch, every kick, every block, every counter. Murakami and Alexandra had each gone to K'un-Lun almost thirty-six hundred years ago and when they had been banished both were already some of the best martial artists around, since then they had both expanded and refined those skills as they picked up (and mastered) countless other styles and invented their own. More importantly in many ways, both had the relatively unique advantage of being able to learn from even fatal mistakes and of being able to spar against one another with lethal intent. Even without any Chi use those two could beat Natasha, Matt Murdock, or pretty much any other near human like a red headed step child. They had no flaws and would, without even thinking about it, shift styles seamlessly within combat to whatever was the most perfect counter to their opponents style.

And that was all bleeding through as the spar continued. The fight had started with the two of them on relatively even ground, with Natasha having a slight if detectable advantage. By minute five that advantage had disappeared, by minute seven it was clear that Elektra was the more skilled, by minute fifteen it was obvious that Elektra had shifted it into a teaching spar and was taking the opportunity to show Natasha how to improve.

When they eventually stopped, hours later, Natasha had a huge smile on her face as she said "This is such bullshit. I love it. You are going to be in this ring every free moment we have though, Elektra, because I learned more in the past three hours fighting you than I have in the past decade of my normal training."

Elektra laughed "Gladly. It is nice when the student becomes the master."

In the two months since then spars like the one that had just ended became a near daily occurrence for them

Natasha laughed at a joke of Elektra's that I didn't catch as they left the ring and said "Any progress on figuring out Chi?"

Elektra sighed, the levity gone for the moment, "Less than I would like. The fighting comes easy when we spar, it's like the move or counter just pops into my head whenever I see it or it would be the correct choice and once it does the knowledge just becomes part of me like it was always there. The languages are the same way, a relative handful of samples of a language and the translation or a few words spoken and it just seems to click and suddenly I'm fluent."

"But the Chi?" Natasha prompted quietly.

Elektra shook her head in frustration "No, once I find the key for it I think it will come just as easily as the rest but finding whatever will prompt the instincts into life isn't something I figured out yet."

Natasha wrapped her in a quick hug and said "You'll figure it out, and with the bastard on ice Matt is fine for now."

"I know, but it still _frustrates_ me." the younger women replied.

I gave a slight cough, interrupting the moment before saying, "I'm guessing there also hasn't been much progress with accessing their actual memories as opposed to just their instincts then?"

"No, just disjointed flashes." she answered before shifting the topic "Any progress on planning our war against the Hand?"

I gave a nod of agreement as the three of us started heading towards the cafeteria "Some. I think that we should try and rip them out of New York first."

"Why?" Elektra promoted, even as it was clear that elation was warring with the expert strategist in her.

"First, because it will better protect Matt." I said, holding up a hand to stop her retort before it left her lips I continued "Elektra, regardless of all other considerations you are one of us and you care about him deeply. That means the rest of us care about him because something happening to him will hurt you. If you want to be all pragmatic, something happening to him would greatly effect your morale and you are one of our primary field operatives so keeping you mentally together is a high priority."

Natasha nodded her agreement as she said "He's right Elektra, you know how important focus is in combat."

Elektra sighed, clearly fully willing to be convinced on this topic, and said "Fine, what's the second reason though?"

"Because the Hand clearly wants it." I replied before explaining my reasoning "You were there at last weeks Black Thorn meeting - Madam Gao and Murakami's new right hand, Yonsu, both approached Fisk about getting into business together. That is two of the five Fingers operating in the same city in concert. Then you have what we got from that underboss we grabbed with Stick, Alexandra has started shifting resources from London to somewhere else for the first time in a century."

"And I've been busy infiltrating over the past few days, a lot of those assets are flowing into New York City. Between the immigration, FBI, and MI-5 records I got access to it looks like she has moved at least a thousand people, and not just hitters. Cooks, musicians, even her house keeping staff have been between Heathrow and JFK half a dozen times in the past three months." Natasha contributed.

"So that makes at least three of the Fingers interested in the City, meaning that they want something." I finished.

Elektra nodded agreement before sighing and saying "And then there is me. We know that the previous Iron Fist never left K'un-Lun so they obviously didn't decide to create me because he was giving them trouble. That means they either expect trouble or are planning something so important that they want every resource they can get to ensure success. Fine, it looks like New York is a focus of theirs. Next reason?"

"Resources, both ours and theirs. It's come to my attention that Madam Gao is basically running Rand Enterprises." I responded.

"WHAT? I knew they had resources but a major multinational conglomerate is under their thumb? I thought the Meachum's had that all sewn up since the Rand's died, don't they control like seventy percent of its stock?" Elektra exclaimed in shock.

I nodded and said "I figure that they have multiple major corporations under their control, but in the case of Rand it is precisely because of the Meachum's that they have that control. It seems that Madam Gao cut a deal with Harold Meachum to resurrect him after his funeral in exchange for his basically being her puppet, and through him she pulls Ward Meachum's strings. And thanks to Natasha," I nodded at the redhead as we grabbed plates of food, "we got access to Rand's servers."

I opened a portal to the dining room in my quarters, Elektra saying "Anything interesting in them?" as we passed through.

"Only that I think Meachum was dealing with the Hand even earlier and I think he had the entire Rand family killed." Natasha said dryly as she went to the wine rack and asked "Is the '96 Riesling good with you?"

"Yeah, that was a good batch. And since Elektra seems to have lost her words there are no objections." I answered for the both of us.

Elektra shook her head slightly "Yeah, that's fine, but what is this about him killing the Rands?"

As I cut my steak I explained what we had found, directed by a little judicious meta knowledge on my part, "Well it seems that Rand Enterprises was up to some dirty business in China, in partnership with a front company that traces back to Madam Gao through a few dozen shells. Given the purchase and delivery orders for chemicals and lab equipment along with the employee and shipping manifests it looks like they were developing synthetic drugs of some kind."

Natasha picked up the explanation as I started to eat "And the server access logs and corporate records show that Wendell Rand was looking into it while everything involving this project was being run and overseen by Harold. Shortly thereafter Wendell decides to take his family on vacation to China and files a flight plan for an airport only three hours drive from the facility. On the way his plane met a tragic accident and was lost in the mountains, all the Rand's presumed dead."

As she took a bite I finished up, "It's interesting to note that Wendell was to be met at the airport by a full security detail from Executive Solutions, not Rand Enterprises, and that ES had their entire stable of operators on the ground in that area of China at that time."

"So you think that Harold was working with the Hand under the table, Wendell got suspicious enough to hire an entire army of mercenaries to make sure that no one objected when he went to investigate, and Harold had him killed when he caught wind of it?" Elektra summarized.

"Pretty much. To return to the main point though, the Hand has major resources in NYC that are vulnerable and we already have our own resources to build up. Fisk is a useful but ultimately disposable tool and through him we control almost sixty percent of New York's underworld now. Raith Industries has a major presence with Raith Financial having just completed its new headquarters on Wall Street, and Wolfram & Heart is a respected law firm now with lots of connections." I said, thinking about the three billion dollar skyscraper that had been a royal pain in the ass to build given my desire for some modifications that wouldn't show up on any blue prints and the law firm that I had first created way back in 2001 in preparation for this particular fight.

With Natasha's ability to infiltrate and our computer resources, insider trading was a walk in the park and so Raith Financial had taken the markets by storm over the past five years. Wolfram & Heart likewise had its reputation helped along by a little less that legal help. While it was much more selective in its clientele than its name sake, and no one working there knew about the helping hand they received, the reality was that they benefited greatly from our extra legal help.

Elektra was silent for a few minutes as she ate, before nodding decisively and saying "Ok, I agreed that New York seems like a good place to really start our war. I take it you have at least a tentative plan?"

I nodded, sipped my wine, and said "I do. I think that its time Elektra Natchios makes her mark on the Big Apple. A little judicious records modification since you joined us five months back has shifted approximately a billion dollars worth of my assets into your name, more than enough that your purchase of Wolfram & Heart won't raise any financial eyebrows. Especially when they hire Matt Murdock shortly afterwords and you put him in charge of the pro bono division with a very healthy budget, everyone who investigates will just think the smitten heiress with more money than sense is blowing money on her boy toy."

Elektra coughed as she choked on her wine, "You gave me a billion dollars?!"

I shrugged "It's just money and you needed a legitimate cover. I've always planned on having you take a public role, we need to diversify our public operations away from Raith Industries and me and that means a public face who is in the know and won't raise suspicions. I planned to have Natasha here take the role back when I recruited her but SHIELD, HYDRA, and various intelligence agencies have her picture so until we can get Extremis up and running we can't have her publicly associated with our legal operations."

"Fine, although some time we are going to have to sit down so you can brief me in on everything you've been up to." she said, and waited until I nodded my agreement before continuing, "Ok, I publicly head to NYC as the newest heiress and socialite on the scene and establish myself as a player. Makes sense but I figured you had more in mind."

Natasha spoke then "We grab Harold Meachum and stuff him in one of the nicer prison bunkers here on Mars. Instead of the Hand using him to control Rand Enterprises, we do. Then we start cleaning out the people they have infiltrated and replace them with our own from Black Thorn, that should help Fisk out without tying him to any of our legitimate business and any investigation that the Meachum's or anyone else ever carries out will lead back to him being the one to kidnap Harold. At least in time."

"Denying the Hand a major resource, helping our pawn, and directing attention away from us. I like it. Now lets work on the details." Elektra said, leading the way into the sitting room.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Yah, things get to happen. I'm thinking about doing next chapter from Elektra's point of view. Either way, it's going to have Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock both in it. And this is why you lay the ground work and properly plan, so that years down the road you have everything in place when it is time to move.


	22. Chapter 22

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 22  
-x-x-x-

Elektra was dressed to kill in a black and red pants suit, over her vibranium/adamantium body glove, as she stepped out of the SUV that had driven her from the airport to the Wolfram & Heart building.

As she glanced over her security detail on the way into the building she thought back on the conversation where Octavian had insisted.

_"It has nothing to do with actually keeping you alive Elektra. Your bones, including your skull, has undergone the Vibranium lacing procedure and your Chi ensures that anything not instantly fatal is survivable. Combine that with your undersuit and anything that was going to manage to assassinate you was already going to take out half the city." Octavian said._

_I had sighed "Then why have them? They would just get killed if anyone tries anything, its a waste of their lives."_

_"Appearance, Elektra. You are going to be a public figure and both the Hand and Chaste may well try and kidnap or kill you. You can't show off superhuman abilities or exotic technology that can't be explained away, so if the Hand attacks and you loose the entire team of body guards to deal with the attackers but don't have to show your enhanced abilities then that is a win." he said._

_I had wanted to argue the point, it didn't feel right letting people die for me, but I couldn't argue the logic and so I said "Fine, what kind of security set up did you have in mind?"_

_"Not me, Natasha. A four man close in team with two male and two female members, travel everywhere in a three car motorcade with six men in both the lead and chase cars. Two men stay with each vehicle while the other eight are the outer ring. You stay in the penthouse suite at the Wolfram & Heart building." he said._

_"Seems a bit extreme but fine, I can live with it." I had said, only to find out that was just the first layer when he shook his head and said "Oh, no that is only the stuff that will be public knowledge and legal. Natasha is also putting one of the hot standby Black Thorn kill teams in NYC, they will use the cameras and drones to keep you under surveillance and be ready for a hot extraction if it becomes needed."_

_"And how do we explain that to them? Or Fisk for that matter, he is going to notice if we have a Thorn team active in the city for any kind of time. He will ask what they are up to." I snapped, thinking this was absurd._

_Octavian had winced at my tone but his voice was flat when he spoke "We tell Fisk that you are Sai."_

_"WHAT? I thought we were keeping our identities hidden from them?" I had shot back in astonishment, after all Octavian was the one most insistent on keeping as much hidden as possible._

_He just shrugged and said "The risk is minuscule given their oaths and he already knows that you are in charge of all Anti-Hand operations for the Circle. We tell him that you are coming in to kick the Hand out of the City and support him against them because we think they are trying to move in in a big way, he'll probably thank us for it. Besides, it never hurts to reinforce in their minds that we have resources they never suspect we possess."_

_I bit my lip and thought for a while "And Natasha agrees with this?"_

_"It was her idea. Her read on Fisk is that so long as we honor our deal with him and don't betray him then he won't move against us, that extending him a bit of trust will bind him to us much tighter. And to be honest, my read is that he is the one with the most potential out of all of our crime bosses." he replied.  
_  
So now here I was, two weeks later and walking through the lobby of my new headquarters. A glance at my watch showed that I was right on time and the firms management team should be on their way to the boardroom right now.

When I entered the room, twenty two men and women were already seated down the long conference room table. Once at the head of the table, one hand resting lightly on the back of my chair, I looked them all over and said "Ladies, Gentlemen, I'm Elektra Natchios and as of six this morning I am the majority shareholder of Wolfram & Heart LLC and the managing partner of Wolfram & Heart LLP, with a majority stake. To be blunt, you now all work for me. Before we move on, does anyone have a problem with that?"

One of the men raised his hand slightly, "Yes Mr. Crane?".

Oddly he seemed surprised that I knew his name, as if I didn't have full profiles on everyone who worked in this building memorized, but after a moment he spoke "Miss Natchios, your ownership of the LLC part of our operations isn't an issue but under New York law you can't own a law firm without being a lawyer. Last I checked you aren't."

"Odd, I seem to recall a shiny diploma from Harvard Law School in my name among the things being moved into my office right now. And the New York Bar seemed to have accepted it when they gave me my Bar Exam in February of this year." I replied, only for him to shake his head in the negative.

"No, I looked two days ago when we found out about the upcoming change in ownership and you weren't listed." he persisted.

"Feel free to contact the Court if you want to check. I'm also a member of the federal bar if you want to check that as well, but to move this meeting along you can assume that I am legally this firms managing partner. Any other questions?" I said flatly.

When no one said anything I continued "Good, and for future reference Mr. Crane and everyone else, I prefer to go by my first name. Do keep that in mind.

"Now with a change in ownership inevitably comes changes in direction and operations, the biggest one is that I plan on significantly expanding our so called Angel unit."

"You want to do more pro bono work then?" asked the VP of PR, the department where Raith had stuffed his future bribe for my beloved. Not that it would be there much longer.

"Yes, but not just legal work. Wolfram & Heart is a corporation with diversified holdings and I see no reason that our charitable works should be limited to merely the legal field." I said with a smile.

Once the inevitable grumbling had passed my board had gotten down to making my ideas reality and I had retreated to my office where I said to my executive assistant "John, could you call Jessica Jones up to my office. I have a job for her."

"Right away Miss." was the response from the apparent office worker, although with my training it was easy to see in the way that he moved how well trained he was. A SEAL for two years before being tapped by the CIA only to be let go three years later after an op went bad and his career couldn't survive the politics of the "cover your ass" game his bosses were playing. He had been recruited to Black Thorn before being tasked with "infiltrating" Envoy and was now contracted as part of my security team.

He showed a young women, dressed in ratty jeans with a leather jacket, a scarf around her neck, combat boots on her feet, and finger-less gloves on her hands into my office and said "Miss Jones, Ma'am."

I waved at the door "Thank you John, close the door on your way out."

He hesitated for a second but then silently nodded and walked out, once the door was closed I triggered the rooms anti-surveillance tech and indicated the chairs set off to the side of the room as a sitting area as I rose "Good morning Miss. Jones. Coffee? Or would you prefer something stronger?"

She hesitated a moment, clearly not exactly sure what to make of this meeting, but finially said "Coffee would be fine, Miss...?"

"Please help yourself." I indicated the side bar where coffee and several stronger drinks could be found "And call me Elektra, as of this morning I am the majority share holder and managing partner here at Wolfram & Heart."

She stumbled slightly at the last half of my sentence but got her drink, nicely laced with whisky I saw, and joined me in a chair "Congratulations I suppose, not sure why you wanted to see me though. Especially not this early."

I waved at folder, quite thick, "That is your HR file. It makes for interesting reading and tells me that you are a woman who has a lot of problems with authority but it also an exceptionally good PI. And now I'm faced with a choice, do I continue to retain your services despite that record or do I do what a litany of people have recommended and end Wolfram & Hearts relationship with you?"

She winced, hesitated, and then opened her mouth to speak. Only to stop as I raised a hand and said "No, don't speak. The truth is that I should fire you if I just go by the bottom line. You are horrible to your co workers, refuse to ever dress professionally, seem to spend most of your days drunk, and are generally a bitch most of the time. At least if I go by all of the various memos in your file. Luckily for you, I've decided on a different solution."

After I was silent for a while she said "And that is?"

I went to my desk and picked up a small file before dropping it in her lap "You are being moved to my personal staff for the moment. The move comes with an office, no need to interact with clients, and a pay raise. John will give you all the details when you leave and take you down to HR to fill out the needed paperwork." I pointed at the folder "That folder is your first task, find out everything you can about Matthew Murdock. The basics are in there."

She stood, the file in hand, but said "Why?"

I cocked my head and smiled slightly "Why what Miss. Jones? Why I decided to promote you instead of fire you or why I want you to investigate Mr. Murdock."

"Both" she ground out through clenched teeth.

"Ah, I promoted you because I want to be around you often enough to form my own impression of you and see if you will be a good fit for one of our new projects. As for Mr. Murdock, I'm thinking about hiring him for a management position and I want to know more before I make a decision. Now unless you want to quit I suggest you go talk to John and get to work, I want that report on my desk by Friday." I said in dismissal.

Once she was gone I laughed loudly for a long moment, games within games. What fun.

Come lunch time I could be found outside _Landman and Zack_ and I smiled as I saw my love walk out, still pretending to be blind even though he saw more than almost anyone, and with his friend Foggy Nelson at his side.

I noticed the moment he recognized me, leaning against my SUV with my guards a discreet distance away, because he froze and stumbled in shock. His friend caught him and started to ask if he was alright but I walked up and said "Hello Matthew" before he could.

My love, his voice filled with surprise, said "Elektra? What are you doing here?"

I laughed at the question, catching the conflicted undertones of longing and worry, "I'm living in the city now. Bought a new company and decided to make it my corporate headquarters."

His lips twitched into the hint of a smile and he said "Done pretending to be poor I see, somehow I doubt this encounter is an accident though."

I chuckled a bit and said "Well I have a tiny little favor to ask."

He stilled and looked like he didn't no whether to flee or just accept before I said any more, but I took pity on him and continued "I've been invited to a party, something on an introduction to the cities social scene, and I need a date."

Before he could say anything his friend pushed him forward a step and said "He says yes, when would you like him to pick you up?"

I laughed slightly, "Not quite how it works Mr. Nelson. My security has all these annoying rules you see." I waved a hand at the guards "Besides, Matt looks like he could use a new tux. My tailor is waiting if you are willing Matthew." I held out my hand to him.

He sighed and took it "I would love to Elektra but I still have to work, this is my lunch break."

"Don't worry about it, just call and tell them that a personal emergency came up. It's not like they are going to complain, Wilson Fisk is hosting tonight's party and he is one of _Landman and Zack's_ biggest clients. In fact, I believe that Alfred Landman is also going to be there tonight." I cheerfully explained.

He sighed again and placed the call before saying bye to Foggy and getting into my SUV. Once we were alone, my security team having gotten into the other vehicles per my previous orders, Matthew said "Now what's this really about Elektra?"

"No how have you been Elektra? No 'It's good to see you' Elektra. Just 'what do you want Elektra'. I'm not really feeling the love Matt." I said.

Once it was obvious he wasn't going to take the bait I sighed, it seemed like rebuilding our relationship was going to be harder than I had hoped, "We'll talk tonight after the party, at your place, but the short version is that I learned something that has made me reevaluate a lot of things. As part of that I realized that you were one of the few really good things to ever happen in my life and I want that back, but it's not that simple and this really isn't the kind of conversation that we should have in the back of the car."

He was quiet for a bit, "Ok, fine. We will talk tonight. So how have you been Elektra, you sound as beautiful as ever."

I smiled "Up's and downs Matt, ups and downs. At the moment though things are looking up. As of this morning I'm the owner and majority partner of Wolfram & Heart."

He stilled, "You aren't a lawyer Elektra."

I waved a hand "Really Matthew. A little breaking and entering, some computer hacking, a few bribes, and as far as the world is concerned I graduated from Harvard Law school two years ago. I even went and passed the bar last month."

"You never change, do you Elektra? Always breaking the rules." he said, sounding sad.

"I did a lot of soul searching recently Matthew and one thing I realized is that you are I are never going to change one another. I love you, I loved you when I fled years ago, and I love you today. I might disagree with some of your principals and your moral code is one that I will never accept for myself but your conviction, you unwillingness to bend who you are. That I deeply respect and admire, enough so that I made the decision to emulate you. I am what I am and I won't change that." I said before gently laying a hand on his arm and continuing "I won't be trying to change you any more Matthew, but whether you can be as accepting of me is something I don't know."

He went to speak but I laid a finger on his lips "Don't speak, not now. I plan to tell you about my past after the party and until you know my story I don't want you answer."

As we entered the party, Matthew on my arm like he belonged there and wearing a tailored tux, Wilson Fisk came over. "Elektra, welcome."

I smiled at the crime lord, and one well on his way to being the Kingpin of New York, "It's a lovely party Wilson." I said before introducing Matt "My date, Matthew Murdock. Matthew, Wilson Fisk. I believe he is one of your firms bigger clients."

Fisk held out a hand and I subtly directed Matt's arm towards it as he pretended to not know exactly where everything in this entire room was. "You work at _Landman and Zack, _Mr. Murdock?"

"Yes Mr. Fisk, under Charlie Knowles in the corporate division." he replied.

"Although not for much longer." I smoothly cut in, deciding to surprise Matt, "As of the first of next month he is going to be a partner at Wolfram & Heart, in charge of all of our pro bono legal work in our recently expanded Angel division."

"Oh, congratulations Mr. Murdock." he said before one of his other guests came up and diverted his attention.

Matt leaned down and hissed in my ear "What is this about me working for you? Didn't you think to ask me first?"

I smiled and shrugged impishly as I leaned into his chest "I thought you would like the surprise, besides you aren't going to say no. Unless you really are going to turn down the opportunity to take whatever cases you want pro bono with a dozen attorneys reporting to you and a budget of thirty million a year."

He grabbed me to him and choked out a strangled "What?"

"I decided to drastically expand Wolfram & Hearts charitable works and I want you handling the legal matters. You will have full freedom to take whatever cases you want with no charge to the clients. Oh, and there is a job in our corporate division for Mr. Nelson if he wants it." I explained.

"Why are you doing this Elektra?" he asked quietly, and firmly.

"Because it is what you really want to do as a lawyer Matt and because I have the resources to give you your dream job. That it will keep you close to me is just a nice bonus." I said, and kissed him.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Yeah that was longer than I expected. Might be one more Elektra scene where she talks to Matt about Stick.


	23. Chapter 23

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 23  
-x-x-x-

It was approximately three in the morning and Natasha and I were flying around the apartment building that Harold Meachum called home while Elektra was renewing her relationship with her boytoy. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about Matt Murdock, oh nothing about him personally but his pesky morals made him a serious potential weak point for Elektra. Would the plans I had put in place to co-opt him work or would I find myself loosing Elektra to retirement in time?

Well as they say, time would tell and I had done what I could.

"I think this whole building is full of Hand, Octavian" said Natasha over the com. "I'm finding weapons in every apartment, tons of hidden cameras and microphones, and the whole building seems like a fortress under the surface."

"Not surprising, I've found watch posts in everyone of the surrounding buildings. How do you want to play this?" I replied, taking my lead from the women who was far better trained and far more experienced in this than I was.

"We Killgrave the watch posts first, see what they know and then order them to report that everything is as it should be. Put trackers on each of them and then use the x-ray sniper drones to take them all down concurrent with the assault." she said, referring to the fly sized drones that had two Arc Reactor powered X-ray projectors inside them along with a lot of computer support to handle targeting. Tuned and targeted just right you could get the two lasers to destructively interfere with one another, and so a sniper that was silent, invisible, and could shoot through walls with precision was born. At least if you could accurately place your target in relation to the firing platform.

"And for the building itself?" I asked next.

"We use both Thorn teams, one coming in from the ground and the other does a helicopter assault directly into the Penthouse. The windows are armored but we can place explosives and blow them in just before the assault team hits. Team 1 hits the Penthouse with me ready to step in if things go bad, Team 2 in the front with you as backup. Once Meachum is on-board team 1 extracts as planned and I go with them encase the Hand has a surprise. Team 2 finishes clearing the building and places the charges before being extracted from the roof by the second chopper, blowing the building once they are out. Then you come and take Meachum to his new home." she explained.

I thought it over and said "Seems fine with me, at least the general plan. So what do we do first?"

"Come join me in placing our own spy cameras throughout this building. Having accurate maps and enemy positions will make the teams job much easier, then we can get started on the watch posts." she sent back.

We were finishing up with the cameras when a glance at the time showed it was nearly five in the morning. "I think we are going to have to postpone the op until tonight, I don't want to hit it in daylight." I said.

"Agreed, want to send me back to base before you go and prepare things for Ward?" she asked.

"Sure. Oh, how do you feel about puppies?" I asked as we headed down through a manhole vent and I opened the portal.

She was quiet for a long moment "Puppies Octavian? That was random. And I don't know, I've never thought about it before."

"Hmm, well I was thinking about getting one. And your portal awaits my'lady. " I answered, waiting until her chuckle died off before closing the portal and opening my own to Ward Meachum's house.

It was the work of only a few minutes before I had released the two little fly drones and put his miniaturized present in the cabinet under his bathroom sink. With that I sighed, opened my own portal, and emerged in my official residence half the continent away before heading off to the office.

After a long day of conducting Raith Industries business it was back to my real job. Thank god for Bruce and his Chi Pills I thought as I popped another, without them I would just have to sleep way too much to keep everything running smoothly.

Eventually though it was go time. Natasha time it to perfection, the four SUV's with Thorn Team 2 holding onto the outside came screaming in even as the lobby doors were blown in with the preplaced explosives, the sniper drones literally melted the brains of their targets, a helicopter came dropping out of the sky, and the Penthouse windows all blew in.

Team 1 fired guide lines from the chopper into the room and were roping in even as Team 2 was jumping off their rides. The elevators made a massive bang as they slammed into the bottoms of their shafts as the charges planted on their mechanisms blew.

I followed along, currently not having anything to do, as Team 2 smoothly worked their way up the twenty story apartment building moving room by room, killing anything that lived, and planting explosives as they went. By the time they hit the second floor Harold Meachum, having fallen to half a dozen taser blasts, had been put into a harness and pulled back into the chopper. By the time Team 2 hit floor three, Team 1's chopper was already over a mile away.

The team operated with smooth clockwork precision and even as the first police response was on the way, shutting down 911 as we started the assault had certainly slowed things down, we were making our way onto the roof even as our ride descended from the sky. A minute later we were flying away, our transponder saying we were a medivac bird, even as the building imploded behind us.

Within fifteen minutes we were landing in a New Jersey warehouse where the choppers were rolled inside and the Thorn teams stripped naked, tossing all their gear into the birds, before putting on the bagged clothes they had pre-placed in the warehouse and heading to the SUV's that would take them back to our base in the city. After they had left, leaving Meachum handcuffed and sitting on the warehouse floor, Natasha and I returned to full size and I opened a portal to a holding cell and pushed Meachum through as Natasha tossed Quantum Grenades into each of the choppers and suddenly they ceased to exist.

We walked through the portal and it was done. Now it was time to commandeer a company and, look at that, Ward Meachum should be waking up right about now.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Some new goodies, even if nothing too special. Debated having a fight with Madam Gao but that was going to be a stomp one way or the other and I didn't really feel like doing either. Wonder what the papers will be saying about that little disruption to the city.


	24. Chapter 24

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 24  
-x-x-x-

I was leaning back in my chair, feet resting on my desk, and watching Ward Meachum go about his daily routine on the screen courtesy of one of the fly spies. As he sat down for breakfast I positioned two of the drones and activated the audio systems. The precision, targeted, subsonics interacted with the human ear in such a way that only the target could hear anything and so there was no chance of any Hand microphones that may be in the house picking up anything.

My voice, disguised of course, sounded in his head as I spoke "Don't react Mr. Meachum, the Hand will kill you if they know about this conversation. Just sit there and keep eating while I speak."

He jumped in shock and whipped his head around but obeyed my instruction not to speak and turned back to his food.

"Good, I'm using directional audio from a microdrone to speak with you. So long as you act like nothing is wrong, none of the people spying on you will know about this conversation. Scrap your right ear now if you understand." I explained.

His hand hesitantly rose and scratched his right ear.

"Good, we will talk more later but for now the basics. I am the Kingpin and last night my agents extracted your father from his Penthouse, I'm sure you will hear about it once you turn on the news. Even the Hand would have a hard time covering up seventy corpses and an imploded building in the middle of the city." I said.

His eyes went wide, his face paled, and he opened his mouth to speak but I interrupted sharply, "Remember, no talking."

Once he closed his mouth I continued, "Your father is nice and safe and you will have the opportunity to speak with him soon but first we need to deal with more immediate matters. Madam Gao, the Hand leader your father cut a deal with, is not going to take this lying down and is going to try and keep her hooks in you so that she can keep using Rand Enterprises for her own interests. Given that your father is out of her reach, she is very likely to threaten your sister and attempt to blackmail you with the threat of making Rand's previous dealings with the Hand public."

He paled even further if that was possible and I let him squirm for a second before offering a life line "Fortunately for you, I dislike the Hand immensely and have my own uses for Rand Enterprises. I've already arranged for certain terrorist threats to be made against Rand Enterprises as a whole and against you and your sister personally, Homeland security will be waiting in your office to meet with you when you arrive at work. They will recommend that you retain the services of a private security firm and indicate a willingness to handle the needed permissions and permits involved. Specifically, they will recommend Envoy Corporation and you will contact them to retain their services. If you understand so far, take a sip of your water."

His hand trembled as he lifted his glass and sipped.

"Good. For now I already have my own people watching over your sister to ensure that nothing happens until more formal arrangements are made, but its best to get things squared away rapidly. When you give Envoy access to Rand's security systems we will ensure that they detect the various taps the Hand and your father have implanted in there and you will, naturally, hire them to do a top to bottom purge and rebuild of your security systems and policies along with asking them to sweep yours and your sisters homes and vehicles.

"You will provide me with a list of the various Hand agents you have been forced to employ over the years and my people will arrange for them to suffer accidents." I instructed.

Seeing that Ward looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown I decided to hold off on dumping anything else on him for now.

"In your master bathroom, in the cabinet under the sink, is a cellphone. You are going to go and get it, leaving your own phone in its place. Don't worry, all of your contacts and data have already been mirrored onto the new phone. Now you are going to keep that phone on your person at all times, I will contact you on it when you are on your way home from work tonight and we will talk. You will even get to speak with your father. For now I suggest that you get to it, you have a busy day ahead of you Mr. Meachum." I finished, watching as he shakily stood before heading up to his bathroom and switching the phones. I would have one of the spy drones take it quantum once he was gone.

It was about ten minutes later, I was double checking everything to make sure all of the arrangements were ready for the Ward theatrical performance, when Bruce knocked on my door.

"Hey Bruce, sup?" I said as I closed the file I was reading, stood, and stretched.

"Not much, just finished a new piece of tech I thought you might be interested in. How are things going with the Hand?" he asked as he leaned against the door frame.

"We grabbed Harold Meachum last night and I just got done making first contact with Ward Meachum, so far so good but now we wait and see how he performs and what the Hand response ends up being." I answered as I walked towards him, "Now you said something about new toys?"

"Yeah" he said as he tossed me what looked like a small metal box.

As I caught it I raised an eyebrow in question and he said "Open it."

When I did I found two compartments filled with what looked like water, but after a moment I noticed what looked like contacts floating on the surface.

Bruce started to explain "I go tired of dealing with screens and so I started working on those, it's taken most of a month but I finally got all the kinks worked out."

I smiled, nodded, and said with a slightly exasperated tone of voice "That's great Bruce, but what are they?"

"Oh, right. I took advantage of the Pym tech to create extremely precise carbon/sapphire crystal lenses with an outer rim made out of the same Vibranium nanites that make up the suits. The outer coating on the lenses uses a variant on our NIF meta-material, NIF-29 I call it, to direct the visible light that hits the lens onto sensors in the ring where the data is then processed and lasers within the ring are fired through the lens to draw the picture onto the eye." he lectured.

I gave another nod and said "Ah, I suppose that hidden eyeball cameras are nice but I doubt you went to all that effort just for those. So what is the point?"

He winced sheepishly and said "Right, I forgot. I was trying to make a neural interface so that I could dump information directly into the visual and audio centers of the brain but that kept running into dead ends, so this is a stop gap. Since we are projecting what the wearer sees we can add or remove data to that projection, it's essentially just a computer display. If you are wearing those you will have a full heads up display and will be able to see a "screen" that only exists to your perception."

My eyes went wide and I turned to look back down at the contacts with a broad grim on my lips "Amazing Bruce. I assume that the controls are voice activated and these are tied into our computer systems?"

"Yeah, encrypted radio. At least unless you want to take the time to enchant some more communications relays, I do wish we could produce those at scale." he said.

I nodded and held up the case, "These are mine I'm guessing?"

"Just the beta version, I really would like you to enchant a dozen more relays so I can complete them. I also need a high fidelity retinal scan so that I can ensure the outer surface displays correctly." Bruce explained.

I smiled, popped in the contacts one after the other, and said "Well then lets head to the lab." even as the display came fully to life and the world snapped into a level of focus _far_ beyond what I have ever seen before.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
New toys, yah. And taking control of Rand starts.


	25. Chapter 25

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 25  
-x-x-x-

I had just finished enchanting the needed relays in the lab and Bruce was finishing up the customization work for my, customized, set of contacts when I said "Hey Bruce, think you can build sensors into my finger bones?"

He turned to me and blinked "What?"

"Yeah, the voice controls are nice and all but somatic control for the contacts would be great and I mean the bones already have the vibranium lacing. So just replace that with ones that include accelerometers and the other needed sensors and then a bit of coding for interpretation and we should basically have haptic feedback." I explained, before another thought came to me as I worked on the idea "Could probably grab most of the code from the suit's, I mean they have all the gesture control features. Come to think of it, Wolverine could use another upgrade. What do you think about rebuilding it in the model of the suit nanites?"

Bruce thought for a moment before responding "The haptic feedback should be easy, but why do you want Wolverine upgraded? I mean I thought we were going to hold off until we figured out how to fully exploit the vibranium."

I nodded "Yeah, but that was before you invented the Chi crystals. Putting Nitramene directly into the body would be idiotic, but with the crystals that problem is removed. Build in sensors to detect when you are hurt and have the Chi crystals be injected right into the body to flood it with Chi. Should provide a decent healing factor. And I figure that since implementing that would require a full rebuild anyways, we might as well put in the Pym Particle channels, the Arc Reactors, and the Quantum computers along with the full suite of sensors."

He went to speak after a moment but I interrupted "I mean with the contacts we finally have a subrosa way to access all of that data and we should be able to rebuild the ear bone with no issue so that is internal coms."

He held up a hand "Ok, ok. I get your point. I'll move Wolverine 2.0 to the top of the list and start working on it, and you are right. We do have most everything we need thanks to the suits, so it shouldn't take too long."

"Best guess for the timeline?" I questioned.

"A few days to a week, we really do have pretty much everything already developed. It's just a matter of doing the integration work and fixing the inevitable kinks." he explained.

"Cool. Oh, and I'll need another set of the contacts." I said, thinking about a modification to another plan.

"Hmm? Why?" he asked.

"Ward Meachum, being able to bug his eyeballs is going to make it very easy to keep him under our thumb." I explained.

Bruce shrugged "Shouldn't be a problem, just get me the scan of his eyes and I'll have them completed in a few hours."

And so it was that sitting in the passenger compartment of the Envoy SUV that Ward Meachum entered for his ride home after a long day at the office and a _very_ tense conversation with his sister about why they both now had heavily armed security teams watching their every move was a retinal scanner.

After I had left Bruce's lab I had decided that it was time for Harold Meachum to be introduced to his new life. He was currently in his, very nice, cell. No windows, of course, but it had a bedroom, swimming pool, gym, kitchen, and dining room along with an expansive database of media. Sadly he seemed to find it all unappealing if his continuous pacing since he woke up there was anything to go by.

I opened a portal out of his sight for Natasha to enter the sealed prison suite while I watched the surveillance feed from my office, I wasn't going to take the chance that his resurrection had made it possible for him to perceive the Astral.

When she said "Mr. Meachum." he whirled around in shock before charging at her.

She swept his feet and had him pinned to the ground in a heart beat "Now that's not nice Mr. Meachum, taking a swing at a lady. If you agree to behave I'll let you return to your feet and we can talk like civilized people." she was quiet for a moment before offering an alternative "Or if you want to be impolite I could just lock you in a stockade."

Harold ground out "That won't be necessary, I'll behave."

"Good." she said as she released him and waited for him to stand.

"I'm sure you have realized by now that my boss had you extracted from the Hand for a reason, and you can probably even guess that reason." she said, pausing in the clear expectation that he would answer.

After a moment he did "He wants control over Rand Enterprises, just like the Hand did."

"Actually it was more that he wanted to remove that resource from the Hands grasp but I suppose that is semantics." she corrected.

"And if I refuse? The Hand bought my loyalty by giving me the means to conquer death, why should I betray them for you?" he questioned, only to appear stunned as Natasha laughed.

"Mr. Meachum, it is exactly because that was your price that you are going to do what my boss wants. You feared death so much that you were willing to cut a deal with the, quite literal, devil to escape its grasp. Do not misunderstand Mr. Meachum, we have already achieved our primary objective by removing your company from the Hand's control, gaining it for ourselves would just be something in the nature of a nice bonus. If you won't comply then we will just kill you and move onto other things." she explained.

He seemed incredulous "Rand Enterprises is a multi-national conglomerate worth half a trillion dollars and you want me to believe that your boss would just throw that all away?"

"Believe what you will Mr. Meachum, it ultimately matters very little to us. What matters to the Kingpin is that New York City is his territory and the Hand has chosen to interfere in that territory without paying the proper respect. When he contacted them about this obvious oversight they chose to compound the disrespect by demanding that he bow to their will and threatening his destruction if he failed to comply." she paused in the tale she was spinning, just long enough to let the tension ratchet up as she held her body just so to engender a subconscious fear response in Meachum, "This is not about business Mr. Meachum, it is now about respect."

She waited until he nodded his understanding before saying, casually, "Besides, we hold the lives of your son and daughter in our hands. Currently we have extended the aegis of our protection over them." My cue to turn on the wall mounted TV and show a split screen image of Ward and Joy Meachum surrounded by their guards. "But we could easily withdraw that protection and leave them at Madam Gao's mercy, or even close our fist around them and squeeze the life out of them." she threatened.

He went pale in fear, _'huh, so he actually does care about them. wasn't sure, guess he isn't a complete monster.'_, and Natasha let him marinate in it for a long moment before continuing "Make no mistake Mr. Meachum, that you will comply with our requests in not in question or doubt. What is up to you is the methods used to achieve that compliance and the benefits, or costs, that compliance will have for you and your children. Now do we understand each other?"

Harold Meachum sighed in defeat, "Yes, I understand."

Natasha smiled at him "Good, I'm sure you will let Ward know that you think he should comply with our directions and that you are being well treated when you talk to him tonight."

He started slightly at the knowledge he would be speaking with his son and the implied command to encourage his compliance.

"Before that though, why don't we sit down and you can get started on telling me everything that you know or have surmised about Madam Gao and the Hand." she said as she lead the way to the sitting area and took a seat, waving him to another.

"Oh, and don't leave anything out. You wouldn't want to find out the punishments for lying and you don't know just how much we already know about you and your dealings, so it's best if you just start from the beginning and tell us everything while leaving nothing out." she said as he sat.

Harold collected his thoughts and then started to speak "It started when I was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in March of 2001. The doctors told me that I had months to live and I started getting my affairs in order when Madam Gao came to visit me early in April 2001, she said that she had access to a medicine that would greatly slow the cancer's progress and would give me access to it in exchange for my using Rand Enterprises resources to benefit her.

"My first task was to have our pharmaceutical division build a state of the art laboratory in the Chinese hinterlands. Once that was done it was to use our logistics division to move drugs around the United States. Then it was to provide the scientists needed for that lab of hers to develop a new variant of synthetic Heroin. Wendall caught on then, he noticed when I pulled some of the scientists off on our cancer research and shipped them off to a small lab in China."

He paused and sighed, Natasha just sitting there calmly and listening.

"I suspected that he knew and so I had Madam Gao poison the pilot and copilot on his plane when he left to investigate the lab himself.

With him, Heather, and Danny all presumed dead I ended up with the proxy for all his stock and effectively total control of Rand Enterprises. That's when Gao started having me infiltrate the company with her own people and begin using its resources to more directly benefit her operations. Over time, however, the drug was becoming less and less effective. I had days to live when she offered to bring me back from the dead in exchange for fully committing to her cause and obeying whatever orders she gave."

His story continued for a while longer and then Natasha started questioning him in depth, teasing every detail out of his skull.

Eventually it was over and Ward Meachum had entered his SUV for the ride to the apartment he would be staying in as his house was swept and secured. Within three rings he answered the phone.

"Hello Ward, good work today. I'm sure that you have many questions so ask away, but do open the box sitting next to you and hold it up to your eyes as you do." I said.

He glanced at the box and set the phone in his lap before opening it, seeing the retinal scanners he pressed it into his face. Moments later I had the needed scans and sent them off to Bruce.

"Why did you need a retinal scan from me? Who are you? Why are you doing all of this? Where is my father?" he questioned, clearly still rattled from everything that had occurred today.

"You will find out tomorrow, the Kingpin of New York, because the Hand disrespected me, and sitting in a nice suite of rooms in one of my facilities." I answered one after the other.

He seemed incredulous as he said "All of this because the Hand disrespected you? You committed the worst terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11 because the Hand disrespected you?"

"I don't handle disrespect well and I'm sure that Homeland Security will have a merry time digging into Madam Gao's businesses as they try and figure out why that particular building was the target. Especially when I make sure they find the proper trail." I explained.

"How did you get the _Ten Rings_ to attack a building for you?" Ward questioned, seeming shocked that anyone had the influence to get those notorious terrorists to do their dirty work.

"I wouldn't trust those goat fuckers to find pussy in a whorehouse, much less carry out a precision operation inside New York City. I extracted your father with my own people, faked up that claim of credit, and the rest is history. It's not like the Ten Rings are going to not accept credit for a major terrorist attack on US soil, and when Homeland finds the evidence I've ensured they will find showing that Madame Gao was selling them arms and smuggling their people into the US I'm sure they will be less than thrilled with her." I explained.

Ward visible got himself back under control before saying "Why are you telling me this?"

"So that you more fully understand the extent of my power and reach Mr. Meachum. You already grasped my ruthlessness, now I want you to fully internalize the fact that I am always going to be ten steps ahead of you and have the influence and reach to stop you from acting against me either openly or in secret. This would be the stick, as it were." I answered.

"And the carrot?" he questioned, slight hope tinging his tone.

"Money, power, protection. What else Mr. Meachum? But we can continue this later, I'm sure your father would like to speak with you and you are only minutes away from your apartment." I answered, putting on his father before he could respond.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Plans within plans and plots within plots, all wrapped in layers of deception. Oh yeah, and shiny new toys. Those are always nice.


	26. Chapter 26

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 26  
-x-x-x-

God I could kiss Bruce, at least if it wouldn't cause him to punch me through a few walls. The contacts combined with Wolverine 2.0 just made life so much better that I almost hated remembering it before them.

Augmented Reality was _amazing_. Having a full, hi definition, record of everything you saw and heard wasn't quite as good as a photographic memory but it was close. And that was the least of the benefits. I now had an honest to god video game people tracking radar and mini-map floating in my vision, and courtesy of my access to the various social media platforms Raith Industries owned along with the various government databases I even got to run facial recognition in real time and get little name tags floating above their heads. Using a computer? I got to use my entire field of view as a screen, or whichever bit I wanted, and could type on thin air or pull off the Tony Stark hologram manipulation from the movies (even if only I could see it).

Business meetings? I had the data literally floating before my eyes and thus looked _massively_ more prepared and competent than I really was. Not to mention the vocal stress and visual analysis programs that ran in real time and gave me a good idea when people were lying.

This set up had freed up an average of twelve hours per week from my schedule simply because I was always effectively sitting at a computer and could instantly respond to things like e-mails while doing other, more important, stuff.

Then there was the Chi release system which allowed me to steadily and continuously be bathed in neutral chi. Sleep? That was nice but now mostly unnecessary. Physical endurance? Not quite limitless by close. Healing? A cut would be gone in minutes.

It was thanks to this system that I got an instant alert when a Chinese reactor caught on fire while I was in the middle of a business dinner. A subtle finger twitch and blink combination and suddenly my cell phone was ringing, a glance at the screen and I said "I'm sorry but I have to take this Obadiah, it should only take a minute though." as I excused myself from the table where I had been in talks with Obadiah Stane about our joint push to get the laws regarding genetically modified organisms changed.

"Of course Octavian. Believe me, I understand what it is like always being on call." he said as he stood and pulled out a cigar, "I'll be in the smoking lounge when you're done."

I gave a nod before answering the phone and leaving. Pretending to hold a conversation with one of my executives as I made my way to the restroom. Once in a stall I closed the door, opened a portal, and stepped through to Mars before grabbing a foot long, six inch wide, metallic canister, typing a couple commands in thin air, opening a portal to the vicinity of the decommissioned - and currently flaming - Wan Tai nuclear reactor in China, and pushing through the canister before closing the portal.

From that canister emerged hundreds of bird sized drones which each contained hundreds of far smaller fly drones. They started flying around the area and deployed a fly to follow everyone within a twenty mile vicinity even as I was stepping back out of the bathroom stall and heading out to finish my conversation with Stane.

All my notes, made low those many eons ago when I first realized what universe I had been reborn into, said was that Scorch got his powers by being in the vicinity of a flaming nuclear reactor in China. Thankfully flaming nuclear reactors were not a common occurrence, in fact this was the first one in more than a decade. My solution to finding Scorch was just to have spy drones follow around everyone in the area until whenever I did find him, with Arc Reactors those drones could last effectively forever and once the bugs target had been identified it would follow them regardless of where they went.

I had just gotten back from my dinner and was looking forward to relaxing with Natasha, we were both so busy and with such odd hours that having unscheduled down time at the same time was a relative rarity and it was nice to curl up with a good book and read with her sitting next to me as she read her own book. Just being able to sit in quiet peace with someone else without having to worry about anything was _nice_. And god was my life fucked up if I thought that was a nice way to spend time with a beautiful woman.

Sadly it was not to be as Elektra sent me a message saying that she needed a portal to Mars. I locked onto the tracking spell that was part of the enchanted communications relay inside her own Wolverine 2.0 upgrades and opened the portal. I noted that it was her meditation chamber in her quarters at Wolfram & Heart and a quick time check showed that it was 3 AM EST. She came through immediately, clearly agitated, and barely before the portal had finished closing she started speaking "I know what the Hand are after."

I rocked back on my heels slightly and said "So you managed to access your progenitors memories then?"

"Yes, finally. But it is almost seven thousand years of memories. Thankfully Chi doesn't forget, unfortunately I need to view them before they become really part of _my_ Chi in some fundamental way that I don't understand. Once I do that I can access the memories just like they were my own but until I do, nothing." she explained, before saying "But that's not the point. Dragons are real!"

I nodded "I'm aware."

She looked stunned as she said "WHAT?!"

"I'm aware that dragons are real. The Iron Fist becomes the Iron Fist by punching the molten heart of a dragon after-all, I believe its name is Shou-Lao." I calmly explained.

"Ok...why have you never mentioned this before?" she questioned.

I shrugged "It never really seemed all that relevant."

She sighed and muttered something about idiot men and dragons being real being important before speaking more clearly "Well it is, relevant that is. The Hand's resurrection substance is made from the bones of dead dragons and they are running low. They believe there is a dragon skeleton somewhere deep under New York City and that is what they are searching for."

I gave a nod "It's locked in a vault forty stories underground that only the Iron Fist can access; given that he never leaves K'un-Lun and would never help the Hand even if he did come to New York, I consider it quite secure. Shame for the Fingers that they don't know about the Vault though, all those resources they will waste digging for bones they can't access."

"YOU KNEW?! And didn't SAY ANYTHING?" she screamed out, fury lacing her voice.

I sighed, cast a quick spell around the both of us, and then opened a portal to the L1 Lagrange point and pushed her through.

With a few finger twitches I manipulated the spells around us so that we were both facing Earth.

The suddenly shock of being in the vacuum of space without an environment suit, and of not being dead (thank you magic), derailed her anger long enough for me to start speaking.

"Look at it Elektra. Earth, it looks beautiful from out here and I consider this one of the true privileges of being me. But the power I have comes with costs."

I glanced over at her before saying "Imagine that you are walking down the streets of New York tomorrow and see an out of control bus come barreling around a corner and about to crash into a building. You are in your armor so you have no risk to your identity and could easily stop it, saving the lives of the ten people onboard. Do you do so?"

"What's that got to do with anything Raith?" she said  
_'ouch, using the last name. yup she is pissed.'  
_  
"We will get to that, but please answer the question." I calmly said.

"Fine, of course I stop it." she ground out.

"And suppose that you also knew that one of the ten people on that bus is a terrorist who is going to blow himself up in a crowd the next day and kill a hundred people. What do you do then?" I continued.

"Assuming I can't just kill the terrorist, I let the bus crash. Sacrificing ten to save one hundred is the right call." she said promptly, her moral pragmatism shining through.

"Ah, but what if you knew that as a result of that terrorist attack a man would be gifted with great power and go on to save the world years later?" I said, finishing the hypothetical.

"I save the bus and let the terrorist attack occur, it's the same as above. All else being equal, you do what saves the largest number of people. What's this have to do with anything?" she said, the anger slowly coming back.

"It has everything to do with my life Elektra. It's probably the reason that Alkasha and I get along with one another so well, we understand something that the rest of you never really grasp. I have to make those kinds of calls every single day Elektra. I have allowed, and will allow, truly horrific things to occur that I could *easily* prevent simply because it will have some positive outcome years down the line that I consider worth the sacrifice. Do you want to know what your future held if I hadn't intervened in your life? If you had chosen not to walk through the portal when I gave you the option?" I lectured

"Wh.." she started to speak but I interrupted her "You died in your Matthew's arms before Alexandra had you resurrected as the Black Sky. You would go on to be the Hand's weapon, although you would bite the hand that created you later and take Alexandra's head. Then, down forty stories under the city you would fight with your Matthew and his friends along with the remaining Fingers. Only for the explosives that Matthew had planted in the building above to collapse it on all of you, burying you, him, and the rest of the Hand leadership.

"That was supposed to be your future Elektra, so by your own logic I should have sacrificed you and Matt to permanently end the Hand. Shouldn't I have?"

She was floored and didn't seem to know what to say "You knew I was...? Matthew died because of...? Wha...?" she shook her head "Why did you save me then?"

"Because I saw potential in you and chose to believe that I could ensure the Hand's destruction another way and that your value would outweigh the benefit of their destruction. I chose to put faith in you, just as I trust you to put faith in me. I didn't know what you being the Black Sky actually meant, nor did I know your parentage or about Stick, but neither would have changed my decision.

"The point of all of this though, well that... You know the Oaths we swore when we bound ourselves to the Covenant. What is the first Oath?" I said.

"To do whatever is necessary to ensure the survival of humanity." she said, before continuing incredulously, "Are you implying that this was necessary to prevent the destruction of humanity?"

"Refraining from telling you what the Hand was after in New York and letting you find out on your own increases our odds against a future threat, yes." I said. _'because I knew it would cause this conversation whenever you told us about the bones and I could use the opportunity to build your trust in me, but you don't need to know that'  
_  
"What has you and Alkasha so scared Octavian? What could scare _her_?" she asked, her voice much calmer and the anger mostly gone.

"Things that you can't know about yet. We will have a very slim opportunity to shift things in a direction that will dramatically improve our odds of survival but she and I are threading a needle while being thrown about by a hurricane trying to pull all of this off. The next five years are crucial, if we manage to hit that shatter point just right then _everything _changes. And so I let you learn about the Hand's objective on your own." I answered, thinking again about just how much I had tied up in ensuring that Loki's invasion came off just so. It was the one chance to deprive Thanos of the Mind Stone, and for that prize I was willing to pay virtually any price.

We floated there, staring at the home we had been called on to protect, for a while before Elektra finally said "Ok, I guess I understand. It's just, _frustrating_. I'm glad I'm not you though, trying to tango with time is not something that I ever want to deal with. I like cause and effect working in that order, you do something and it has an effect is how things are supposed to work. Not the other way around."

I laughed before opening a portal back to our base "You don't know the half of it."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Yeah, Augmented Reality is awesome. One of the technologies that I _really_ want in real life.


	27. Chapter 27

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 27  
-x-x-x-

With Elektra having learned how to successfully access her progenitors memories our knowledge of Chi had skyrocketed. It would likely take her decades (and perhaps even centuries) to fully integrate the seven thousand years worth of memories that were her birthright but even a small cup, in relative terms, of that collected knowledge and wisdom was a staggering amount in absolute terms.

That knowledge had also led to several changes and another expansion in our operations. Having learned how to remove Stick's hold on Matt she was not going to hesitate to do so, and trying to stop her would have been _idiotic_ \- to put it mildly. So the Defenders had been created largely to appeal to Matthew's sensibilities while also serving as the flip side of the Black Thorn coin.

The needed facilities had been built in the Rocky Mountains, deep below ground, and equipped lavishly but the real fun had come from Elektra and I working together to create a portal network with a Chi selectivity component so that only those whose Chi had been added to the approved list could even see, much less use, the portals. Once the facilities were created and ready we had started the recruiting with a core drawn from the dozen most morally upright and acceptable operators and agents from Envoy, and now here we were. Waiting on Elektra's arrival with Matt.

If the way she had just shoved him through a portal when they were sparring was anything to go by, she had decided to go with the shock approach to overcome his predictable objections.

While the blind man was still recovering she moved to join me on the raised dais at the front of the cavernous dogo room that acted as the core of this facility. Once she did she began to speak "Ladies, gentlemen," a glare at her boy toy, "Matt. You all saw how you were brought to this facility, through a glowing orange and black hole in reality. Even the dimmest among you", another pointed glare at Matt and the man winced "should have come to the conclusion that the world is much weirder than you knew when you woke up this morning.

"This weirdness is not new, things beyond modern belief have walked this world for eons uncounted. Sometimes they chose to act openly, in others these forces seem to have collectively decided to remain in the shadows. The world is experiencing, right now, another such switch. The age of man is in its waning days and the age of gods is about to return with a vengeance. You have all been selected for this opportunity because you are _good _people of strong moral character and principals in addition to your skill sets, and if you will accept then we will provide you with the knowledge and tools that you will need to defend the innocent against the depredations of those with abilities far beyond the norm."

She continued with her speak, explained the code she would expect the Defenders to abide by, and answered several questions but really got them was when she _casually_ beat all of them at the same time with both hands behind her back. Well that and the demonstration spar the two of us had.

We moved _just_ slow enough that our audience could still see us, myself by accelerating time for my body and her with Chi enhancement to her entire body, and fought all out. She was clearly the better hand to hand fighter, and could have _easily_ defeated me if she was really trying, but I was opening portals to strike from unexpected angles, creating walls of light to control the battlefield, and in every way giving as good as I got until she finally had be on the ground.

I had risen and spoken then "I'm Octavian Raith and I am a Sorcerer, a Master of the Mystic Arts. I'm sure that statement would have had you laughing if you heard it this morning but now? Well do you doubt that people with abilities far beyond the norm walk this world?"

When no one spoke up I nodded and said "Good, we tried to avoid recruiting the truly idiotic. The order that I am part of has been fighting a shadow war against things from other realms, literally extra-dimensional aliens, for thousands of years but the prophecies are clear. Within the next ten years we _will_ fail to keep our shadow war contained, we don't know how or why or what will cause the masquerade to break and the veil to be lifted, just that it will. When that happens the world will see buried secrets unearthed and light shown into the worlds shadows, and it needs to be ready for the truths it will learn.

"The truth is that my order can not defend everyone, or even most people, against these threats. Our time is tied up fighting things that threaten our entire world, our entire species, even our entire _reality_. But how do the police handle someone like Captain America deciding that he wants to rob a bank?

"That question is what led to the creation of the _Defenders_. Elektra had been fighting her own war against an organization known as the Hand, whose leadership is made up of five immortals that have been around for more than three thousand years and have abilities powerful enough that they have been worshiped as _gods_ in ages past. Right now they are the worlds oldest and most powerful criminal syndicate. The two of us crossed paths and became allies, and now here we are. If you are willing then she will teach you to wield your Chi like she does, you won't be Captain America but you will be better _enough_ that you can at least make someone on his level work for the win.

"And your mission? That will be to defend the little people just trying to go about their daily lives. You will walk among them, live among them, and be unknown to them even as you prevent crime, and protect them from the extraordinary. Know, however, that if you agree to join then membership is both binding and for life." I finished, using a minor chi technique that Elekrtra had taught me in preparation for this to ensure my heart beat didn't give away the deception to Murdock's exceptional senses.

He was the one who spoke up though "And if we don't join? What then?"

"Then they will be free to leave immediately, with their memories between entering and leaving the portal to this place removed. You will likewise be free to leave once Elektra removes the ticking time bomb in your blood." I answered, not mentioning that the memories of everyone but him had already been altered by Elektra to remove the Killgrave interrogations that they had undergone to ensure we weren't infiltrated.

"What ticking time bomb?" he questioned, clearly knowing that I at least believed the statement to be true.

Elektra answered for me "The Chaste have been at war with the Hand for a thousand years Matthew, do you really think that they could have survived that long without their own _abilities_? Stick called himself master to us both but he was the leader of the Chaste as a whole and he had chosen you to be his successor. It is the knowledge of what that means that caused me to truly join with Raith here."

A hand twitch had the projector come to life and showed the parts of the interrogation of Stick that related to his own past and Matt.

You could see something in him break, some faint ember of love for the man he had considered a second father, die as he learned how he had been played.

"I have spent the nearly eighteen months since I found out using every resource at my disposal to find a way to remove his parasite and I have managed it." she said before her Chi became visible as an aura of absolute blackness that seemed to crush the room under its metaphysical weight.

She _moved_ and her hand slammed into Matthew's chest right over his heart. He _screamed_ in agony as the black Chi flowed into his body in waves before finally ripping itself out of his back in the shape of a hand and in that hands grasp was a ball of blood that radiated yellow light. At least until the hand closed around it before disappearing.

Murdock fell to the ground and weeped even as Elektra caught him and I opened a portal under the two of them that went to Elektra's quarters in this base. She had confided in me that Matt would gain a lot of Stick's memories up until the point where he had made Matt his next host and so I acted to give the two the privacy needed to deal with the fallout.

In the end, all of the recruits had accepted our recruitment offer and were now bound to their oaths much the same way that the Hand's fingers bound many of their own. It was a Chi technique that required honest commitment from both parties to take and the individual _could_ break it if they really tried (as opposed to the oath of blood and magic that the Black Thorn was bound by) but it should be enough. Between training the Defenders, keeping up appearances in public, and training Natasha and I Elektra's days were kept full. She simply didn't have the time to do much active field work, meaning that the loads on Natasha and I had increased.

On the plus side, September 18 2008 made me a _very_ happy man. My little spy drones had hit pay dirt, a man named Chan Ho Yin had just set a dishtowel on fire in his hand in his tiny little Hong Kong apartment.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
So much effort to keep the paladin happy in the neutral party. But Matt needs to be handed with kid gloves to keep Elektra on board, so you put in the effort and figure out how to profit. Nothing like setting up one secret organization to fight another secret organization that you are also running, all to advance the goals of a _third_ secret organization that you are running.

And yah, we finally get Extremis soon.


	28. Chapter 28

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 28  
-x-x-x-

One of the downsides of the Chi Pills was that sleep became largely optional, and when you were kept as busy as Natasha and I were that meant getting to spend the night with my girlfriend was a rarity that didn't occur anywhere near often enough in my opinion. Which is why I had taken shameless advantage of Scorch's little appearance this morning to justify scrubbing her scheduled missions tonight. It was just relatively routine infiltration work thankfully.

While we were recovering in bed Natasha said "Not that I'm complaing Octavian, but what made you decide to scrub my missions for a date night?"

I smiled some and kissed her on the shoulder "Can't a guy just take his girlfriend out to dinner on the rings of Saturn because he feels like it?"

She pushed herself up on one arm and smiled slightly as she said "He could, but you wouldn't. There are never enough hours in the day for all that we have to get done, and neither of us is the type to get offended over the mission coming first."

"Ah what hopeless romantics we." I joked.

"I'm Russian, what's your excuse?" she shot back.

I smiled and said "I'm Russian in spirit?"

She laughed for a bit but as she settled down I said "More seriously, I have a top priority assignment for you starting tomorrow. Scorch just went hot."

She shot up and said "I didn't get the memo about him showing up in holding, why did you decide to put him in the black cells? Bruce and Maya are going to need access to him."

I gave a frustrated sigh as I leaned back and closed my eyes "Because I didn't grab him."

She looked almost offended at my reply and asked "Why not? He's the last piece of Extremis."

"I'm aware, believe me I am fully aware." I sighed, and wrapped an arm around her before pulling her close "But it's what you said, Banner and Maya are going to need access to him. What do you think Bruce would say if we dropped off an innocent kid in his lab to be experimented on for our benefit?"

She winced and said two words "Hulk Smash."

I chuckled lightly and kissed her on the top of the head "Yes, Hulk Smash. Maya would probably get over her misgivings, she is too focused on making Extremis work to really care about how exactly that is done. But Bruce? Maybe if I could sell it to him as actually being necessary to humanities survival, but he is way too smart to buy that argument."

"Morality is a pain in the ass." she mumbled.

"No, that's my dick." I shot back, earning a slap to the chest for my comment, before continuing "I cleared your schedule because I want you to recruit him. Everything we can find on him is already being assembled and I have a full Thorn team keeping an eye on him at all times, but you are going to have to study him and figure out the approach. We need his honest and sincere help."

"Pity, I would rather just dose him with Killgrave and strap him to the table. But I understand, it shouldn't be too difficult." she said.

"Me too Nat, me too. Granted we don't actually know how Killgrave would react with his biology. It's not the recruitment that has me at loose ends though, and don't worry about the timetable too much." I replied, when he looked at me in incredulity I shrugged slightly and explained "I had one of the spy drones take almost a liter of his blood once he fell asleep, it's waiting in Maya's lab with a bow on it. Her and Bruce should be able to get started with just that."

"Ah, so what has you worried?" she questioned.

"What I do with Scorch after we get what we need. We won't be able to just kill him or stuff him in stasis, not after we go to all of the trouble of making sure he volunteers and is all helpful. We can't let him out of our control, he will know too many of our secrets. The preliminary personality profiles indicate that he would be a pretty horrible fit with any of our groups. And he is going to be the first test subject for Extremis so we are going to be looking at a Captain America who can throw fireballs. Oh, and there is always the potential that Extremis could seriously upgrade his fire's level of power." I explained before saying "So tell me Nat, what in the hell are we supposed to do with a super solider pyro who wants public recognition and fame?"

She was silent for a moment before saying "You sure we can't just kill him? Maybe call it destructive testing to figure out the limits on the Extremis durability."

"I wish, we have some truly repugnant child sex slavers slated for that phase of testing. I'm half tempted to con him into being our first agent out in the greater universe and get Alkasha to drop him off on some out of the way alien world somewhere." I answered.

"Enough about Scorch, we will deal with it as it comes." she answered before changing the subject "How is our political maneuvering coming?"

"Well enough, that Obama is going to win is an easy guess even without future knowledge and we have a number of people well positioned to become part of his administration. I do have a sitting Senator who could do with a tragic, and non suspicious, death. His challenger is one of ours and this close to the election, the Senators death should result in an easy win for our girl. The file has already been uploaded to the black server." I answered, thinking about all the maneuvering going on with the election and expected change in government. We were going to need the political support when everything went public, and that meant getting our people in place and ready.

I could feel her fingers twitch as she accessed the server that was buried under a random asteroid and whose only connections to anything else were the specialized enchanted com relays that only she and I had. None of the others needed to know about all of the dirty work.

"Not a problem, he will have a heart attack in his sleep tomorrow. Although I do wonder what the others would think if they knew you had me killing "innocent" politicians to advance our aims." she answered after reviewing the files.

"Exactly what I was just thinking, and they would be needlessly angry. It's why they don't ask and we don't tell." I said.

"True, enough work talk though." she said before deciding that it was time to engage in my favorite kind of physical activity.

When I entered the Extremis lab the next morning Maya seemed to teleport over as she gave me a huge hug. "Thank you! Thank you! This is amazing."

"I'm glad you liked it, but how far can you get without Scorch on site?" I asked as I returned the hug.

Bruce answered for her "We will be able to strip out most of the genes that we know _aren't _responsible for his ability. Those responsible for hair color and the like, but until we have him in the lab to run some tests and can figure out exactly what his body is doing we won't be able to find the key."

I nodded, not surprised, "Well Natasha has gone to recruit him, he should be onsite within a few days to a week or so."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Shorter chapter, I'm sure people will bitch about parts of it. Ah well, as always don't like, don't read.


	29. Chapter 29

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 29  
-x-x-x-

It was three days later that Chan Ho Yin stepped through the portal, Natasha at his side, and started looking around in wonder. It's not every day you experience teleportation for the first time I suppose. Given that Natasha had spent the last two days on legwork before having Chan willingly come along with her an hour later I wasn't sure whether he was just that much of an idiot or Natasha was just that good, probably a bit of both.

Regardless, I held out a hand and said "Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Chan. Octavian Raith, the sponsor of this little undertaking."

He shook and said "I'm glad to be here Mr. Raith, Natasha was very persuasive."

I smiled, "She does have a way about her. But come", I turned slightly and put a hand on his shoulder as I directed him towards the team "let's introduce you to the team. Dr. Bruce Banner, one of the worlds leading experts on enhanced human abilities and our Chief Scientist."

Bruce held out a hand "Mr. Chan, it truly is a pleasure."

After the requisite hand shake I said "Dr. Maya Hansen, she is the lead scientist on Project: Extremis. It's hoped that your gift will allow us to solve the final issue with the project."

Another hand shake, "Dr. Elizabeth Banner, Dr. Hansen's second."

After she had given a smile I twitched a few fingers and sent a message to Bruce _"Why don't you three show him around, see if you can get at least some baseline testing out of the way. I need to debrief Natasha."  
_  
Bruce gave me a slight nod "How about we show you around the premises Mr. Chan?"

Once the four of them were out of earshot I said to Natasha "That was faster than I expected, how did you convince him so easily?"

She shrugged "Money. You would be surprised what people are willing to agree to in exchange for a million dollars per day, especially when the first million is laid before them on the table."

"Not what I expected, but then you are the expert and it did work. Good work, it's going to make a hole in our accounts moving that much around but I should be able to make it work. You have time to start setting up his accounts tomorrow or should I ask Elektra to do it?" I asked.

Natasha gave me a cat that ate the canary grin and said "You misunderstood Octavian, the bargain was that he gets a million dollars in hundred dollar bills with breakfast every day."

"Oh, very good work." I said with a smile of my own "Using the un-laundered Black Thorn profits I assume?"

"Of course. And he even agreed to sign a non disclosure agreement along with the various contracts, I assumed that you would be able to make that binding?" she asked.

I winced slightly "Not easily. There is a reason that the Covenant Tablet and the Black Thorn Table are so ornate and involved, I could come up with something but it would be easier and faster to just have Elektra bind a Chi compulsion on him to honor the terms."

Natasha gave a nod of acknowledgement, accepting the information and filing it away along with everything else in the event that it proved useful some day. "How does that work? I've focused on the more physical advantages of Chi, I just haven't had the time to study the more esoteric uses yet."

"You should make the time, it really is fascinating." I opined.

She elbowed me slightly before saying "Someone keeps me busy all the time. With Elektra having to handle New York, the Defenders, and being all lovey dovey with Matt she hasn't been doing much of the field work. And you are kept even busier than I am with everything you are up to."

I nodded acknowledgment "True, I'll see what can be shifted. But to answer your question, to perform the Chi binding you feel out the subjects Chi and wait until they honestly commit to a contract or oath. Anything that _they_ perceive as inherently and willingly binding on them really. Then you use your own Chi to bind their Chi into the state it is in at that moment, from then on they will always be just as committed to the binding agreement as they were the instant they made it. At least that is the basics, Elektra throws in all kinds of advanced tricks and variations."

"Interesting, and probably good enough. How long do you think it will take them to get Extremis viable?" she asked.

I snorted "With Betty wanting a baby? I wouldn't be surprised if they had it ready for testing in two weeks."

Natasha had a sad little smile on her face as she said "I'm glad Chan showed up when he did, I felt bad for her and Bruce."

I winced, remembering the simulation Bruce had shown her when she first started pushing him to get her pregnant. A baseline human was most manifestly _not _capable of carrying a godling of anger to term, not when a single kick could shatter her spine or punch organs out through the stomach. "I did too, thankfully Extremis is enough to make it possible. At least according to Bruce's simulations."

I gave her a one arm hug before saying quietly "And you? It has been nine, almost ten years since I made you that promise and it looks like I'm finally going to make good on my word."

She gave me a look, a mix of serenity, sadness, longing, regret, and resolute determination "No, I'm going to have my variant of Extremis keep me sterile. At least assuming that later versions will overwrite previous versions. The knowledge that I will be able to have the children I want someday is enough. Our lives have no place for children right now, and won't for years or even decades. Thankfully Extremis will give us millennia."

I gave her a searching look, my eyes locked on hers for a long time. An entire conversation of things unsaid, things that would never be verbalized, passed between us and I nodded "I think I'll do the same, I need no bastards dropping in my wake. Can you imagine it though, what wonders humanity will produce when death no longer limits us?"

"And what terrors." she said.

"So Russian."

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Ah the joys of bribery, who needs complicated plans when you can just throw lots of money at the problem. Enough of it and most everyone will do pretty much anything with a smile on their face. And yeah, sappyness. As always, don't like, don't read.


	30. Chapter 30

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

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Chapter 30  
-x-x-x-

I was standing in the observation room overlooking one of the labs, Maya by my side.

"How are things coming with Scorch?" I asked, not looking away from where Bruce was conducting some tests with Chan.

"Good, Chan's mutation is amazing. His body produces blood platelets that seem to have an extremely high specific heat capacity." she said, sounding excited.

"How high, and is that all?" I queried.

Maya shook her head in some wonder, "As in higher than asbestos high. Bruce is already talking about new types of insulation and even fire proof clothing."

My eyes widened at that even as I started thinking about marketing and profit figures, that was easily something that could be channeled through Raith Industries and onto the open market.

"That can't be all of it though, I mean that does nothing to explain his ability to make fire, or even how he is completely immune to fire." I questioned.

"It's not, just the most important part. Every cell in his body has a phenomenal ability to move heat, akin to a superconductor with electricity, and he even has some conscious control over the movement of that energy. So the heat gets moved from wherever until it ends up stored in the platelets, where he can then draw it back out and radiate it into the air from his skin." she explained.

I thought about it for a moment before giving a nod of understanding, "And his control once the fire is outside his body?"

She shrugged "We are assuming Chi but Elektra hasn't had a chance to stop by and give us her opinion."

I gave a wry smile as I glanced over at her and as our eyes met said "We use that explanation for a lot of stuff we don't really understand I've noticed."

She gave her own smile and said "It is convenient. More seriously though, the knowledge of magic and Chi has filled in a lot of the holes and blind-spots in our theories. Betty was telling me earlier that Bruce has started rewriting physics again, he thinks he has found out how to unify General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics by taking into account those other forces."

"Huh, that's a Nobel for him if he manages it." I said as I thought through the implications of that little tidbit before continuing "What kind of timeline are we looking at for Scorch integration and Extremis testing?"

Maya shrugged slightly "We have a full DNA map already done and we've eliminated a good portion of it as irrelevant to his ability but the truth is that we only have the one subject. It's not like we can do comparison work across millions of people. I think we are going to have to integrate a number of different variants into test subjects using the Logan vector and just see what happens."

"How risky is that? I mean Bruce and Betty aren't exactly squeamish and they know about the final round of testing but I would really prefer not to push them any further than absolutely necessary." I questioned.

"It should be relatively low risk, but we really don't know until we try. At least unless you can convince Alkasha that a little acausal information gathering is acceptable, I mean if she could tell me what experiments won't work then I won't actually have to do them." she said, just a hint of wheedling in her tone.

I shook my head "No, risking the backlash from paradox isn't worth it. Besides, that Extremis taps the Phoenix Force for power makes everything tricky."

"What do you mean?" she asked curiously.

"The Phoenix Force is literally _the_ primordial force of creation, destruction, and rebirth. It is pretty much the one thing that both precedes the existence of the universe and will be around after its end and rebirth. Oh, it's not exactly more powerful than the Time Stone or anything like that but it is largely outside the remit of the Infinity Stones. That makes the probabilities of any given future timeline where the Phoenix Force plays a defining role much more error bound than would otherwise be the case." I explained, thinking back to the discussions I had had with Alkasha over the years we had known one another.

Maya processed it and then said "Oh, wait. Does that mean that she won't be able to see the future once we make Extremis public?"

"No, the amount of Phoenix Force in any given Extremis enhanced individual will be so small that even as a collective whole the effect on the time line probabilities at the macro scale will be virtually unnoticeable. Even just looking at the individuals macro scale probabilities it won't matter much. Where it will make seeing the future virtually impossible is on the scale of individual cellular events." I answered.

Maya nodded, shrugged, and said "Science and testing it is then."

"And that timeline?" I questioned.

"Ten days to two weeks to run through enough Scorch variants to get a large enough data set that we can start effectively modeling it. Another two weeks of refinement as we test the models probably. A few days to verify that we can broadly replicate Chan's abilities across the population safely and consistently. Figure slippage and we should have Scorch completed and have moved onto the first Extremis testing by Christmas." she calculated.

"Good, I would really like Extremis ready for Covenant deployment by the end of Q1 2009." I replied before taking one more look down at the lab, where Bruce was hitting Chan with various heat sources as he sat in some kind of machine, and turning to leave. I had work to do.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Well the fiance is being slow to get ready, so you did get a short update.


	31. Chapter 31

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 31  
-x-x-x-

As I waited for Maya to complete the final prep work before Chan Ho Yin would become the first human to experience Extremis, I looked down at the lab from the observation booth and thought about all the work that had gone into this.

At its base Extremis was nothing less than one of the most horrifically lethal bioweapons ever created. The basic idea that Maya had had was to genetically engineer a form of cancer so that instead of harming the body it would rebuild the body along the provided outline, and in that undertaking one of the problems she had encountered was that the cancer didn't spread throughout the bodies cells fast enough. Being the mad scientist that she was, Maya had decided that the solution was to modify a virus known as _Torch Fever_ to act as a carrier. Given that Torch Fever caused anyone who caught it, and any biological samples taken from them after they had caught it, to literally self immolate over a period of three days as every single cell in their body kept increasing in temperature until nothing but ash remained - I was fairly confident that this is where the Phoenix had entered the equation.

Regardless, Maya had succeeded in using _Torch Fever_ as a vector to infect every cell in the body with the engineered cancer virtually simultaneously and had even managed to modify the cancer enough with DNA taken from various extremophiles so that the cells would use the energy produced by the Fever to power its own work. That was Extremis at its heart, and it was invariably lethal as the energy produced overwhelmed even the ability of the cancer that was effectively constantly rebuilding the body to consume.

Scorch offered a solution to the burning issue as it, first, greatly increased the bodies ability to absorb heat and, secondly, the mutation caused the body to naturally radiate the energy as necessary to maintain homeostasis. As the bodies temperature rose, the Scorch mutation would cause that excess heat to be dumped into the surrounding environment. And given the truly insane level of energy that could be stored in the mutated blood platelets, exceeding the bodies limitations to self regulate heat in that manner was virtually impossible even for Extremis. When you factored in the fact that the mutation also caused those platelets to be constantly expelled through the bodies waste systems and recreated, it became effectively impossible for an overload to occur.

But all that Extremis provided in terms of super human ability was incredibly rapid and complete regeneration, while this would result in some degree of enhanced ability as a side effect it was quite limited. How that regeneration was achieved, however, also made it the perfect vector for integrating other genetic modifications into the body. Essentially, if you could produce a complete DNA model then you could use Extremis to modify someone to that model. That is where Erskine's Super Solider Serum came in. With the computer support and models we had available, we could easily take an individuals initial DNA map and integrate all of those alterations that Erskine had drawn from across all of human history into a new, stable, individualized DNA map and then it was just a matter of modifying the Extremis to work to that modified blueprint as it rebuilt the body.

Now here we were, Chan Ho Yin had just become the first human to have been injected with Extremis with any expectation that he would survive the experience.

"AAARRRRRRRRGHHHHH!" came over the microphones as he screamed, his body seeming to glow with a hellish red light, until barely a minute later he became the heart of a giant fire storm so hot that it appeared white and the flames liquefied the entire room down to the vibranium laced underlayer. Then the fire seemed to retreat back into his body, gone as if it had never existed as Chan stood up from the floor with a look of wonder on his face.

A moment later great pillars of fire emerged from both of his hands, before taking the form of twin dragons that then started to dance through the air.

"This is AMAZING! I've never felt so alive, so powerful." he exclaimed.

Of course, then came the testing. Strength, speed, endurance, agility, memory, sensory, and more. After two weeks of the testing seeming to show an unmitigated success it was time to see if we had truly succeeded and the procedure could be generalized.

It turns out that injecting Extremis straight into a baseline human body was a bad idea, out of a hundred test subjects _one_ managed to survive the experience. The other 99 seemed to have been overwhelmed by the energy before Extremis could modify them enough to manage/survive it. This wasn't wholly unexpected, indeed this was the exact fear that had led to us not using Extremis on Chan until after we were sure we could replicate his mutation.

The second batch of test subjects were first injected with modified Logan cells to write the Scorch modifications into their DNA. They ran high fevers and were bed ridden for a week but all survived the DNA rewrite and the subsequent Extremis injections. With that success achieved it was time to start perfecting the process and finding the limits on the Extremis enhancements.

Improving the Logan phase proved relatively easy, when you combined that injection with a mainline of liquid _Life_ the whole process went from a week long experience to a few hours on your back as the body used the neutral Chi to more rapidly integrate the changes. Making the Extremis injection phase less fiery was another matter as it seemed to be far more reliant on the mind set and control of the individual being enhanced.

Testing the limits on the enhanced had shown a few unexpected synergies and effects. For one, they no longer needed to eat or breath. Extremis was pretty much constantly rebuilding the body using the energy drawn from the Phoenix Force and it had very little concern for things like raw materials or oxygen. Sustained exposure to hard vacuum was debilitating, although not lethal, as the subjects blood boiled away even while being constantly healed. Any physical damage that left the body even grossly intact was likewise rapidly healed, the one exception to that was if the brain was substantially damaged. The brain seemed to regulate Extremis in a way that we didn't really understand and so, when it was significantly damaged, the power draw could nigh instantly exceed even the ability of the Scorch modifications to regulate - causing the body to self immolate until nothing was left (and turning the atmosphere to plasma with the expected results for the surrounding environment).

Chopping off the head was also lethal, although that took a blade wide enough to fully separate the two parts of the body as anything less would result in the cut being healed even as the blade was passing through the body. Once the head was removed the body, again, immediately self immolated while the head did so some minutes later as even Extremis couldn't rebuild the whole body from the neck down fast enough to stabilize things before brain death occurred.

One of the easier ways to kill someone enhanced with Extremis was actually to bombard them with radiation. The Scorch mutation provided nigh total immunity to radiation as the energy was absorbed and stored in the platelets but if you dumped in _enough_ energy then you could cause the platelets to overload and the body would again self immolate (as it seemed to do whenever an Extremis enhanced individual did die).

In the end though, anti-material rifles to the head were what we decided constituted standard procedure for killing those individuals.

With the destruction and ability testing out of the way it was time to move onto trying to integrate the Wolverine enhancements. Using Extremis on someone so enhanced was lethal as the metal came free from the bones when they were initially rebuilt and yet thanks to the Vibranium's ability to absorb energy it could not be vaporized even with the extreme levels of energy present in the body during the initial Extremis rebuild. In the end you inevitably ended up with a latticework of Vibranium spread randomly throughout the body and brain, which was both incredibly painful and inherently lethal.

Figuring out how to apply the procedure to someone who was already enhanced with Extremis had taken all of February but we had eventually managed it by removing the titanium and replacing it as the bonding interface between the Vibranium and the bone with Adamantium. As the Weapon X program had proven, that metal could also bind to bone quite well but we hadn't used it before because the mild radioactivity of the metal that resulted from the gamma radiation exposure required to produce it was invariably lethal to the human body. With Extremis taking care of that little issue the Adamantium was now viable in the role and so it was used. Integrating the new and improved nanites into the skeletal structure was also significantly different as our old method, using Pym Particles to shrink a robot down to the appropriate scale and having it literally walk/swim/float through the body to carry out the work, wasn't viable when Extremis would just instantly incinerate the bots. Instead we had produced what were essentially hollow tentacles made of Adamantium/Vibranium nanites that would simply force their way through the various bones from the outside, weaving the pathway throughout the bones for the Wolverine nanites to fill, injecting those nanites via the hollow interior, and then pulling back the tentacles. When Extremis healed the bone it would cause it to bond to the Adamantium, which was in turn bonded to the Vibranium inside it, which in turn protected the various electronics, computers, Arc Reactors, and other assorted bits and pieces that made up Wolverine 3.0.

Now here we were, the full Covenant gathered on the first of March to discuss the successful completion of phase one Extremis and one plans moving forward.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Not really happy with this chapter, too much direct data dumping. That being said, a few days off does tend to knock you out of the groove so it is what it is. Oh yeah, and as of this chapter no one but Chan Ho Yin and the various disposable test subjects had undergone Extremis. The whys and when of that will make up a good bit of the next chapter. Although the general reason it obvious, you don't want to be the alpha (or even beta) tester for experimental genetic engineering human enhancement programs that draw power from alternate realities.


	32. Chapter 32

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 32  
-x-x-x-

The seven of us were gathered in the Covenant meeting room for the first time in months. While we all kept in touch, full formal meetings were quite rare.

"I called this meeting because Extremis has successfully completed Phase 1 testing and that means it is time to start making concrete plans for _Ascension, _but since it has been so long since we were all gathered together like this I feel that we should get any other business out of the way first before we start discussing Extremis and Ascension. Any objections?" I said, referencing the project name for the overall human improvement mission.

After a moment of silence in which no one noted any objections, Bruce spoke "How does Stark's death change our plans?"

Elektra, Betty, and Maya all winced at the reminder that Tony Stark's convoy had been hit on the way back from a weapons test in Afghanistan and he was presumed dead.

Natasha was the one who answered though, "He isn't dead. I've been keeping an eye on him since before his convoy was attacked and will be right back at it once this meeting is over."

The four who hadn't known looked shocked but when Bruce went to open his mouth Natasha raised a hand slightly and continued "Obadiah Stane has been selling weapons to the Ten Rings for a while and used them to arrange Stark's assassination, but the Ten Rings decided to capture him instead - they want him to make them weapons. Stark almost died but thanks to a Doctor Yinsen, also a prisoner of that Ten Ring's cell, and copious amounts of surreptitiously supplied _Life _thanks to yours truly he survived and is in no real danger of dying from his injuries in the near future."

"And we're just leaving him there?!" asked Bruce, sounding appalled.

I went to speak but Alkasha cut me off with a raised hand before answering him "This is his catalyst Bruce, the moment that will - more than any other - define Tony Stark's life. If we deny him the experience then he would never become anything more than another iteration of his father, but if we allow him the experience then he will emerge as one of humanities champions."

"So you play God? Who named us the dictators of mankind's fate?" Bruce spat back.

I shook my head in the negative and said "We aren't god Bruce, nor are we playing god in this instance. Could we have intervened to prevent this series of events from occurring? Absolutely. Everything from assassinating Stane to having Natasha smash the Ten Rings and pull Stark out right now is, or was, within our power to do. But we did not _encourage_ or _cause_ these events to come to pass, all we did was choose not to stop them. Free will Bruce."

Bruce gave a bitter laugh "Free Will, Octavian? This from someone who has used mind control to accomplish his ends and regularly abused knowledge of the future to shape the outcomes that he desires?"

"Of course, if I didn't believe in free will then the seven of us wouldn't be sitting around this table. We are here because I wholeheartedly believe in the survival and freedom of humanity at _any_ cost, and freedom requires free will. But freedom also requires that humanity be able to survive, and so I will allow - or even engineer - events to increase the odds that humanity survives. Tony Stark having this life experience increases the odds of humanities survival, so I will not act to prevent it." I answered.

Bruce went perfectly still for a moment, visibly restrained his anger, and then said in a level tone "Just like you allowed me to become the Hulk?"

I gave a slight nod "Yes, just like I chose not to prevent the birth of an elder god with very strong ties to humanity and a willingness to fight for its defense."

Bruce roared, hulked out, and swung at me in barely a heart beat but I was ready and so a portal opened in front of his fist and beside his head. As the Hulk was recovering from smashing himself into the wall of the chamber I opened a portal underneath him to the Mirror Dimension of Luna and hit him with a tracking spell as he fell through.

Everyone took a moment to recover from the sudden violence, and equally sudden disappearance of the Hulk, but eventually Betty said "YOU KNEW?!"

"Of course I knew Betty, and I'm pretty sure that Bruce had come to that conclusion a while back. He just feared that I would tell him the truth." I replied evenly.

"And you let him become the Hulk just for his power?" she asked.

I nodded and said "Largely. The Hulk is, in many ways, the Earth's nuclear deterrent. Very few things in the entire universe could fight him and survive the experience."

"So you are just using him, just like my father wanted to. Just like everyone else wants to." she said bitterly.

"Just using him? No. But I am using him, just like I am using everyone around this table and am used by everyone around this table." I said.

Before she could reply Alkasha twitched her hand and another portal opened up, this time between the meeting room and its Mirror, and Bruce walked through.

_'Alkasha was playing games again.'_ I thought even as Bruce looked me straight in the eyes and I stared right back.

After nearly a minute he gave a slight nod and retook his seat "I'm not happy with you Raith and I doubt I will be for a long time, but the goals of our Covenant are too important to allow personal animosity to interfere. So I have one question for you and I expect an honest answer as I would consider a lie to be knowingly acting against me. Was my becoming the Hulk necessary for humanities survival?"

I winced slightly, bound as I was by the oaths we had all sworn I couldn't dissemble or shade the truth to anywhere near the degree I would like. "Absolutely necessary? No, but..."

I was cut off by Alkasha "But it did increase the probability that humanity would be alive and free to chart its own destiny two decades from now by more than 50%. Earth is reaching a cross roads Bruce and you will play a critical role in events that will shape not just humanity or Earth but the entire universe. Events eons in the making, some that even predate the very birth of humanity, are coming to a head and you will have a near unique ability to put your finger on the scales so that the end result favors humanity."

Maya spoke up next, if quietly and in a voice tinged with fear "What has you and Octavian so scared Alkasha? What is coming that justifies what we have done, and will do?"

Alkasha gave a sad smile even as I gave a head shake of negation "The Age of Man is ending and the Age of Gods is about to be reborn, but the details of what that really means need to wait until after a critical event occurs. Time, space, destiny, fate; call it what you will but it is approaching a shatter point. A moment where everything is in flux and the entire game board can be rewritten, and Alkasha and I are playing for that prize. One possible future out of the countless billions that could potentially be."

Natasha cut off whatever responses the others might have been inclined to make when she said "You don't want to know. I've gotten bits and pieces out of Octavian over the years and even that is enough to give me nightmares, trust that Alkasha and Octavian are acting in the best interests of humanity and be glad that you don't have to be the one who knowingly stands by and allows atrocities to occur simply because it is a net benefit in the fullness of time."

A long moment of silence passed before Bruce gave a slight, barely perceptible, nod of acceptance and then Elektra said "So Extremis, I haven't had the time to keep up with all the details, what does Phase 1 testing being completed actually mean?"

Maya seemed relieved that we had moved onto less weighty matters and quickly answered "It means that we can successfully and repeatedly enhance humans to a level generally on par with Captain America. The healing factor is far superior to his own and there are a few other ancillary benefits but it basically means we have a survivable process for making super soldiers."

"Super soldiers? Not super humans?" Elektra queried.

Maya shook her head "No, we still have far too many questions we need to answer before Extremis is ready for civilian deployment."

"Like what?" Elektra prompted.

"Like whether or not Extremis enhanced individuals can have children. And whether or not the process is reversible, or even modifiable. And how the process interacts with certain genetic abnormalities." Maya answered.

Elektra blinked "Oh, that seems kinda important."

"Just a bit." I said sarcastically, if with a slight smile on my lips to indicate that it was a jest, before asking "What kind of timeline are you looking at for answering those questions, Maya?"

She shrugged slightly "Testing Extremis modification will be easy, we just inject some of the test subjects with a different variant and see what happens. The only reason I haven't done it yet is that I was finishing up the phase one testing. As for the compatibility testing, I already have the computers running the models for every DNA sample that the human genome project ever gathered."

I noticed what she hadn't said and prompted "And the breeding issue?"

Maya sighed "That's harder, and we are looking at at least nine months to see what happens. I've done enough preliminary testing to be able to say that an Extremis enhanced female won't be able to have a child with a male who isn't Extremis enhanced; the woman's body will just destroy the sperm like it does any other foreign biological contaminants."

"And with an enhanced man?" Natasha questioned.

"I'm not sure. I can tell you that the enhanced sperm is able to survive inside the woman's body and so should be able to fertilize the egg but I really don't have much of an idea on how Extremis regeneration will interact with pregnancy or what a child born with Extremis active in its body will be like." Maya answered.

"And Bruce's sperm?" Betty quietly asked.

Maya gave her a smile and a slight shrug "Who knows? Divine biology isn't exactly my specialty. I can tell you that when we injected his blood into some of the phase one test subjects it proved very hostile and actually overpowered the Extremis, resulting in the test subjects violently exploding as their entire bodies seemingly turned into gamma radiation. But given what Alkasha has said about how the effects of divine blood are contingent on what its source desires, I'm not prepared to make any definitive statements."

"But I am. If you are enhanced with Extremis then you will be able to produce viable offspring with Bruce." Alakasha answered before Betty and Bruce could process their hopes being potentially dashed. "In fact, all it will take is for Bruce to intend for you to get pregnant when you have sex and you will get pregnant."

Betty gave a broad smile to Bruce before turning to Maya "I'll be getting Extremis soon then."

Maya nodded with her own smile on her face "Of course, and Frank and I will be joining you just as soon as I've finished with testing the viability of overwriting previous Extremis variants."

I glanced at Natasha before saying "I'll hold off until phase 2 testing is done, but try and have it finished before the new year."

Natasha and Elektra both gave their own nods of agreement.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Not exactly where I intended the chapter to go but whatever. It works.


	33. Chapter 33

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 33  
-x-x-x-

It said sad things about humanity that it was harder for me to conceal stock purchases than it was for me to manipulate elections, infiltrate SHIELD, kidnap world famous scientists, or even establish a bloody Mars base.

The first step in my stock market manipulations around Stark's kidnapping was raising as much cash as possible, and seeing as I wanted to keep these actions outside of Raith Industries that meant playing various banks and other financial institutions. I had started the set up work when our infiltration of SI showed that the Jericho was entering the prototype stage almost six months back and by now I had nearly fifty billion in hard cash on hand, secured against my Raith Industries stock. Then came the real complex part, see I couldn't just go and take a $50 billion short on SI on the open market.

If I tried to short it on the exchange then it would throw up all kinds of red flags and be incredibly obvious. Instead it was all over the counter contracts with corporations, hedge funds, major financial institutions, and even governments around the world. All of it done through proxies and in as opaque a manner as I could manage. The end result was that I was short on SI and long on Hammer Industries and OsCorp, the next two largest players in the weapons market after SI.

When Tony Stark went missing I nearly doubled my money directly, and made even more thanks to Raith Financial knowing what publicly traded companies were going to have bad quarters thanks to being on the wrong side of my transactions.

Then came the next round of derivative contracts, these betting on SI and against its competitors. At the same time I negotiated the next round of SI shorts while gathering full profiles on everyone who owned SI Class B stock, which made up 90% of the companies voting shares.

When all was said and done, as of close of business the day after Tony Stark held his press conference and announced that he was Iron Man he owned forty percent of SI's voting shares (having inherited the 15% that Obadiah Stane had owned in addition to his own 25% stake) while I owned twenty two percent.

That little fact explained why two days later my helicopter was landing at his Malibu mansion and Pepper Potts was there to greet me as I exited.

"Mr. Raith, it's good to see you again." she said as she extended a hand in greeting.

I clasped it in both of mine and gave her a smile as I said "Please Pepper, I've told you before to call me Octavian."

She smiled back "But then you didn't control the second largest share of Stark Industries voting shares."

"And you didn't have to play keeper to a man who invades foreign nations on his own authority in a flying metal suit." I shot back.

She winced slightly at my barbed comment "True, I take it that your concerns are why you requested this meeting?"

I laughed, "So polite Miss. Potts. Don't you mean demanded under threat of legal action?"

"Somehow I doubt you had, or have, any intention of suing Mr. Stark or Stark Industries, Octavian. If you were inclined in that direction then you wouldn't have played so many games to amass your stake in the company." she shot back.

"True enough, but Tony is notorious for blowing off the board and I did need to meet with him both in private and rapidly. So threatening to sue him seemed the most effective means of getting my meeting." I answered.

"Right this way then." she said before leading me down the stairs and into Tony Stark's Malibu living room.

Stark had a glass of scotch in one hand and a tablet in the other as he lounged on the couch. When he noticed us he took a large drink before saying "Raith, it's been a while. And last time we talked you didn't control a quarter of my company, I think I liked you better then."

I gave a nod of acknowledgement before saying "Stark, that it has. Seeing as I do control twenty two percent of your company though, I think we need to talk. Between the two of us we have all the votes needed to do whatever we want with Stark Industries and so it is time for you to convince me that you haven't lost your mind."

He gave a slight nod of his own, "Touche, but before we get into any of that I would like to know how you knew that I was going to be kidnapped."

"Oh, what makes you think I knew anything about your kidnapping?" I questioned, more interested in what he would say than surprised that he had come to the conclusion.

"JARVIS" was all he said, and suddenly the entire room came to life around us in a holographic display.

Even as I started to take it in the display went active as it traced money through shell companies and stock transfers, contracts between hundreds of different parties appeared, were highlighted, and set aside.

"You seem to have forgotten, Raith. I created the worlds only AI and Stark Industries has built most of the worlds communications infrastructure, not to mention I run the worlds largest and most powerful corporation. Your systems might be unusually secure but the vast majority of the worlds are my plaything, including all of those entities you drew up derivatives contracts with. I had traced your transactions within an hour of finding out you owned twenty two percent of my companies voting shares, and those transactions are ones you would have only made if you knew that I was going to be kidnapped." he explained.

I clapped my hands "Very nice work JARVIS, Tony really did create one of the worlds marvels of technology when he created you."

"Thank you for the compliment Mr. Raith." the AI's dry voice said from the rooms hidden speakers.

"Stark, I assume that you tore down JARVIS's code after Fury visited you last night and removed whatever back doors he used along with ensuring that no one can spy on you here?" I questioned, ignoring his accusations for the moment.

Tony barely blinked as he took another sip and said "Of course, should _I _assume that means you want to ensure this is a private conversation?"

"You should, I've found it best that as few records exist as possible when one has to discuss actions that might theoretically implicate one in criminal acts. I assume you have a private shield room somewhere on the premises where we could have a truly private conversation?" I answered.

"I do." was his short reply.

I nodded, "Then how about you give me the tour as we make our way there and you explain just what direction you want to take SI in."

Tony stood, setting his empty glass on the table, "Really? You want to just continue with our meeting as if the conversation we are going to have isn't hanging over our heads?"

I shrugged "Why not? Assuming you convince me of your plans viability then we have other things to discuss in private and so it would be more efficient to have both conversations at the same time."

He lead the way down to his lab and once inside I noticed the prominently displayed Iron Man armor in a cubby to my right. As I was looking at it he grabbed something from his desk and tossed it at me, when I caught it I noticed that it was an arc reactor.

"That little baby gives off no harmful radiation and yet produces as much energy as five nuclear power plants." he explained.

I gave the reactor a second look before saying "And how long before it needs to be refueled? Oh, and how expensive is it?"

"That little one needs to be refueled every two weeks, it's incredibly inefficient. If I scaled the design to its most efficient size and power output you are looking at approximately twenty million in expenses for the first year of operation. Ten million per year after that for the next thirty years, the whole time matching any commercial nuclear reactor in the world in output." Stark replied.

I tossed it back to him "So Stark industries now owns the energy market. Given that RI owns a series of patents related to ripping CO2 out of the atmosphere and turning it into petroleum products, we could even replace pretty much the entire oil extraction and refinement industry if we worked together."

I walked over to the Iron Man armor and when Stark joined me I said "Is the armor space capable? Or more precisely, could the repulsors put something in orbit and function in space?"

"I would need to redesign the armor, but yeah. Repulsors push off of space-time itself, they can function anywhere. You have something in mind?" he answered.

I nodded "Well it seems to me that between those and your reactor you should easily be able to make a cargo plane that can take off and land from a normal runway and yet reach orbit. How much do you think virtually no cost space launch is worth? More importantly, we could cheaply put ten thousand or so communications satellites in orbit and create truly global cell phone coverage without any need for ground based towers."

As I finished I turned to look at Stark and his eyes went wide before, a moment later, he started waving his hands through the air as another holographic display came to life around him.

"Before you get into that though, I think we should have our conversation. You've convinced me that SI is a good investment, now its time to work out our differences and talk about the future." I said.

"Right, your knowing about my kidnapping. JARVIS, privacy mode." Tony said.

Moments later the floor tiles we were each standing on dropped straight down into the ground a hundred feet, leaving us in an empty room.

"We're secure, so now are you going to tell me how you knew about my kidnapping and why I shouldn't just kill you?" Stark asked, much more serious than usual.

I waved a hand, opening a portal under us and into the Mirror Dimension. Once we were inside I said "No, now we are secure."

He went to say something but I raised a hand to cut him off and said "You aren't the only one with special abilities around Stark, but to keep you from asking questions I moved us sideways in time the slightest fraction. Think of it like an alternate dimension without any people in it, more importantly there is no way for us to be spied on from the real world."

"Right, dimensional travel with a hand wave." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

I smiled, "It's much more complex than that, but discussing the nature of the universe isn't why we are here. If you are interested then once we finish our conversation I can give you the address of the women who taught me?"

Tony looked around some more and made several complex gestures with his hands, ones that would control the room we were in if this was the real world I presumed, before finally saying "Yeah, sure. Now enough games, my kidnapping."

I shrugged "One of my agents came across the fact that the Ten Rings was using Stark weapons, ones that you supposedly only sold to the US military, approximately eight months back. And it wasn't one or two rockets, but entire truck loads full of weapons.

"I started shorting SI then, it was bound to come out and then your stock would tank. If it didn't I could always bring it to the attention of the appropriate eyes at the opportune moment."

"Insider trading, Raith? That doesn't go with your goody two shoes image." Tony shot back.

"Please, anyone who thinks you can be entirely clean when you are as successful as we are in delusional. I seem to recall that you engaged in a laundry list of felonies to track down my insider trading after all." I countered.

"Touche, although that doesn't really answer my question." he replied.

I gave a nod of my own "Not completely, no. See I don't like making moves if I don't have all of the facts, and ideally control the board as well. So I started investigating, trying to figure out exactly what was going on with those weapons. Another long list of felonies on my part and I was pretty confident that the leak was on SI's end, which meant you or Stane.

"Then you went missing in Afghanistan and suddenly the electronic trail started pointing right to you as the source of the weapons. At that point it was obvious that Stane was dirty, so again I shorted SI hard in preparation for the information going public. It was around that time that one of my sources got his hands on a video showing that you were still alive. Then you escaped and I sat back to see what you would do, your press conference made it obvious that you knew about the weapons then."

Tony snarled "And you didn't think to do anything about Stane?"

I gave him a shark like grin "Who said I wasn't doing anything? Once I knew that Stane was the one who was dirty I started laying my own paper trail and making my own plans. If you hadn't killed Stane then he would have died in a tragic plane crash the next time he flew anywhere."

Tony blinked at that "What paper trail?"

"Why the one pointing to a couple of corrupt Generals, Senator Stern, and a handful of other government officials as the party responsible for diverting Stark weapons to the enemies of the US. They were going to kill Stane because he was getting close to figuring out the truth and do a relatively poor job framing him, one that would naturally be exposed during the investigation." I explained.

Tony cocked his head to the side slightly, seeming to reevaluate me in light of this conversations revelations, before saying "Pity that the events of two days ago poked large holes in that story."

I shrugged "Not really. SHIELD has every incentive to keep your image nice and shiny as Fury does want you for his Avengers Initiative and that won't work out so well if you are facing congressional investigation after congressional investigation. The official story is that Stane caught an unknown individual attempting to steal a prototype of your Iron Man armor and was tragically killed by said individual, then you intervened as Iron Man and the rest is history. I also took the liberty of providing all the evidence needed to implicate those officials to Homeland Security and the FBI earlier today.

"It seems that Stane had a dead mans switch and the contents of his investigation was set to be transmitted in the event that he died."

"You do play dirty Raith." Tony commented.

"Thanks for the compliment. Although it is a pity I couldn't figure out a way to expose Stane without the blow back harming SI." I said.

"There wasn't one. Why go to all this trouble though? It can't just be to protect your investment considering you only seem to have invested in SI because of Stane's dirty dealings." he replied.

"Because I want to see what Tony Stark can do to change the world, and that isn't going to happen if you are tied up fighting the US government. I despise the status quo and have every intention of bringing humanity into the future even if I have to drag it there kicking and screaming. Your Arc Reactor promises unlimited clean energy and, combined with your Repulsors, virtually free access to space. I want to see that potential realized.

"The rest of my plans?" I shrugged, "Well those require that we build some more trust."

I stuck out a hand "Partners?"

He seemed to hesitate for just a moment before grasping my hand "Partners. And I do want that address."

I laughed as I brought us back into his shield room.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
And Iron Man 1 is over. Chapter isn't great but whatever, and I don't think anyone predicted that Iron Man would become Iron Mage.


	34. Chapter 34

This Is not my work, I just wanted to have this story posted on FF for ease of access. I have included all of the first post, and will include all the author posts in his chapters on spacebattles.

-x-x-x-  
Chapter 34  
-x-x-x-

My Christmas present for 2009 was _pain_ beyond imagining as every single cell in my body was reborn in the pure fires of creation. My training in both the mystic arts and Chi had given me advantages that our test subjects lacked, allowing me to bleed off the excess power not into the surrounding environment as heat but to instead return it to the Phoenix Force from whence it came, but the whole experience of my body being rebuilt was agony beyond anything I had ever experienced.

Once it was over though...well it was amazing. I was already coordinated, years of martial arts tends to ensure that, but now I was constantly aware of every facet of my body at all times and had literally perfect coordination. I was already more physically fit, thanks to years of exercise in Chi rooms, than all but a bare handful of people world wide but now it was like I was weightless. My senses had been decent, now I had the eyesight of Hawkeye, the hearing of Daredevil, a preternatural sense of touch, and a nose that could give a blood hound a run for its money. I had possessed a phenomenal memory and general intelligence that was by any measure well above average, I now had perfect recall of my entire life and could think, draw, plan, and simply operate on a level that I couldn't even really _imagine_ before Extremis.

The first thing I said, turning to Bruce who had been overseeing my enhancement, was "How did you cope?"

When he cocked his head in question I continued "With everyone else being so _slow_? If your mind works anything like mine now does then you had to be so _incredibly_ lonely."

Bruce blinked, "Ah, yeah. You get used to it, at least you didn't have to deal with a childhood and puberty where you didn't understand that everyone else doesn't idly re-derive the laws of physics from first principals as they wait for the bus to school."

I laughed slightly "And you couldn't use your astonishing intellect to predict and model them?"

Bruce shrugged "No, I could. It just made life pointlessly boring when 99.9% of the time I could predict entire conversations word for word before they even began. One reason I joined you was that around here I can only manage a good seventy percent on average.

"It's been quite nice since Betty got enhanced, I loved her as she was but her being able to really keep up with me is nice."

"Relationships with equals are what I prefer as well. But enough of this, I'm going to test out my new body." I said, making my way towards the testing room when Bruce said "Have fun."

I had barely entered the room when Natasha came through one of the other doors, watching as fire danced around one of her hands. She looked up and smiled, broadly, at me. "Care to spar?" she asked.

"With pleasure." I said, smiling back even as I ran towards her at my enhanced bodies full speed.

As we fought I understood the reports I had read about Captain America being a living weapon, a combat machine. Absolute mastery of your own body combined with super human senses and a mind that made computers look slow, Natasha and I were inventing and discarding entire combat styles that perfectly countered one another even as we sparred around the room. Every muscle twitch was read, processed, analyzed, and integrated before it was even perceptible to the best trained normal human. Every punch and kick was _perfectly_ thrown and _perfectly_ timed.

We fought all out for hours before, by unspoken consent, Natasha started running through each combat style she knew one after the other. I would fight back, creating the perfect counter before turning whatever style she had just used against her until she had countered it and moved onto the next. With Extremis keeping each individual cell of our bodies in literally peak condition we were fighting as ably at hour thirty as we had been at minute one, but eventually Natasha broke off and said "This kinda takes the fun out of sparring, makes it too easy."

"True, how about we move onto something that will be more fun then?" I said, smiling wickedly as I tapped Scorch's little gift to Extremis and turned the clothes I was wearing to vapor.

Many, many, many hours (and positions) later Natasha said "Congratulations Raith, you out fucked a god."

I laughed, long and loud, before finally saying "I think I had some unfair advantages. Say what you will but the emotional connection does add something, and now you have the stamina to keep up."

"True.", she replied as she rose up on one elbow and started playing with my chest "Any preferences for my new body?"

I laughed again "I'm not that out of it Nat, that's a more loaded question than 'Does this dress make me look fat?'"

"I'm aware, but it isn't every day that you get to put on a new face." she countered.

I smiled "Actually, you can put on a new face every day. But no, I don't really have a preference Nat. Hell, you probably have read my preferences better than I ever have and your flesh - as enchanting as it is - has very little to do with why I care about you."

"Romantic." she said, giving me a kiss before snuggling into my chest.

I dryly replied "Truly, I am one for the ages. So what do you think of the upgrades?"

"That I am very glad I took your offer all those years ago. Although it is a pity that Elektra can't join us, I want to see what she can do enhancing a body like ours with Chi." Natasha said.

I sighed slightly "I'm just surprised we never actually bothered to DNA map her before this, must have just slipped our minds. I suppose we all thought the Black Sky stuff was purely chi based."

"You think the unknown parts are dragon DNA?" she questioned.

I shrugged "It would explain the totally unknown DNA and mesh with what we know about how a Black Sky is conceived. Regardless, I'm hopeful that it is dragon DNA."

Natasha looked up, meeting my eyes "Oh? Why?"

"Because I know where some dragon bones are and how to access them. If we can get a sample then we should be able to understand what has happened to her, and maybe even how to integrate the Chi absorption abilities shared by the Dragons and the Black Sky into Extremis." I explained, thinking through the alternations the news had made to my longer term plans. It was no longer viable to just inform Danny Rand what was behind the vault door and why he should never open it, pity. That was so much easier.

Natasha thought for a moment before saying "That would be interesting, so when do we go and grab these dragon bones?"

I sighed "That's the problem, they are locked behind a vault buried forty stories down in the bedrock under New York City and opening that vault requires the Iron Fist. And Danny Rand isn't going to return home until 2016."

"Ah." was her one word reply as she used her finger to doodle on my chest "Any idea why Alkasha refused Extremis?"

I winced at that, remembering the private conversation the two of us had after she refused.

_"No, Octavian. Over the years I've made deals that were necessary at the time but have consequences all the same. You know the enemy I will die to, and whose thrall he is under." she had said._

_"And I take it that the terms of your deal with that entity are what keep you from accepting Extremis?" I questioned, my voice quiet._

_She smiled, her face serene, as she shook her head "No, I'm quite sure that entity would be thrilled if I benefited from Extremis."_

_I had thought for a while before my eyes widened "You're a gateway to Earth for it? Aren't you?"_

_"Well done Octavian, and yes I am. So long as anyone on Earth has undergone the ritual than anyone else can to, using the current hosts as their gateway. But if no hosts exist then that entity will be barred from its easiest method of accessing Earth. And those pathways must be gone before the Titan arrives else he will have a powerful ally." she had calmly said, even as we discussed her necessary death.  
_  
"Yeah, I know why she refused Nat. And no, it's not really something that I can talk about." I said aloud before shaking my head slightly in a futile attempt to get unpleasant thoughts out of my mind, and then deliberately changed the subject "Seeing as you are going to be wearing a new body tomorrow, one with a face that isn't on SHIELD's most wanted list, would you care to do me the honor of making that dinner party in New York that I have to attend tomorrow night less boring?"

"It's a date." she said.

-x-x-x-  
A/N  
Yah, Extremis enhancements finally. And yes, Cap upgrades are bullshit. Especially when you combine it with limitless cellular energy.


End file.
